Threatening 24
by Mackiecam
Summary: Stephanie Plum is back again, this time dealing with the emotional aftermath of the events in Trigger Happy 23 (posted on this site). With her life feeling like it is spinning out of control, she deals with a deranged job applicant, an unhappy mother, stress-eating binges and a repentant Morelli. Join her as she makes what could be her most important decision ever.
1. Chapter 1

_**Threatening Twenty-Four – A Stephanie Plum Inspired Novel**_

**Chapter One **

I ran into Ranger coming up from the gym. "Couldn't sleep again, Babe? This is becoming a habit."

As a person who does not willingly get up before the clock shows double digits, the fact that I have been up before the sun for three weeks running showed something was definitely wrong. And the fact I was also at the Rangeman facility, Ranger's exclusive security company that caters to the well-to-do in the Trenton and Newark area, before daybreak further highlighted something was seriously amiss. I pressed the number for the fifth floor, ready to go to my desk and start the day. Ranger pressed the seventh floor button for his penthouse apartment.

"Yeah, I'm definitely having trouble sleeping. Rex is appreciating the nighttime company." Rex is my attack hamster.

"Come up to my apartment and tell me about it", said Ranger. "We can have breakfast together. You can make the coffee while I shower."

"Just coffee for me. I ate already."

"Banana cream pie or key lime?"

Does he know me or what? "Smart ass…I went healthy today. I had strawberry cheesecake." It's healthy, isn't it? After all, it has strawberries and cheese in it. That's two of your main four food groups covered right there. And that is not including the graham cracker crust. Isn't that a grain?

The Rangeman facility is located in downtown Trenton ten minutes away from everything important – the hospital, the police station, and my apartment. It contains staff bachelorettes, office space and training facilities. The penthouse floor contained Ranger's luxurious one-bedroom apartment. I followed Ranger through the doorway and headed for the kitchen. I measured coffee into the basket and added water to the reservoir, turned it on and waited for the machine to make its magic.

The apartment is laid out in two halves. The right half contains a professional grade kitchen, a small dining room and living room. The left half contains the king-sized bedroom, master bath, enormous walk-in closet, and attached office. Separating the halves is the front hallway and a half bath. I have used the apartment as a safe house enough to know the bed linens are silky soft, the shower gel is Bulgari Green and, unlike my apartment, the dishes and cutlery all match. I also know there is a small assortment of my Rangeman uniforms in the closet and I have been assigned a drawer in the bathroom for my toiletries.

I heard the shower turn off and poured coffee into two cups, doctoring mine with cream. I carried the cups into the bedroom and sat on the bed to wait while Ranger finished shaving. He came though wearing only a damp towel and the distinctive scent of his shower gel. I handed him his coffee and admired the view as he walked by. The sight of Ranger in clothes is heart-stopping. The sight of him without is perfection.

When I was growing up I would play Barbies with my friends. Unlike my friends, my dolls all had superpowers and no use for Ken. My Barbies loved GI Joe instead. Ranger is a real life permanently-tanned version of GI Joe. Cuban American with the dark brown eyes and hair to prove his heritage, he is just over six feet and is characterized by a hard body, sharp mind and few words.

I, on the other hand, have no claim to a hard body or few words and I can't speak to my mind. I am Stephanie Plum, and I am a blue-eyed woman with brown, shoulder-length curly hair. I look nothing like Barbie. Instead of the va-va-vroom hourglass shape of the doll, I am of average height and shape, and the only thing remarkable about me is the cute little Hungarian nose I inherited from my grandmother.

I work for my cousin Vinnie's bail bonds office retrieving felons who have missed their court date. When a felon is arrested, they have the option to pay bail to allow them to walk free until their trial. If they don't have enough money and cannot scrounge enough from family and friends to make bail, they can use the services of a bondsman.

A bondsman will pay the bond to the court in exchange for fifteen percent of the bond as well as some collateral. When the accused shows up in court, the court returns the bond money to the bondsman and, in turn, the bondsman returns the collateral to the accused. He keeps the fifteen percent though.

If the accused does not show up in court, the bondsman is not happy as he does not get his bond money returned to him. He needs this money to lend to someone else to earn another fifteen percent. That is where I come in. As a bounty hunter aka bond enforcement agent aka fugitive apprehension agent, I find the accused and force them to return to the court system. For this I get ten percent of the bond money and the bondsman retains the remaining five percent. Good deal for me. The catch is that if I don't capture any felons, I don't get paid. Despite this, I like the job. Whether it is the ability to keep my own hours, the capacity to make emergency runs to the Tasty Pastry bakery, or the knowledge that I am doing something good for society, for some reason it suits me. Hell, maybe it's just that I don't have to wear pantyhose and heels every day.

More recently, however, I started working part time for Rangeman.

Three weeks ago, I was supposed to apprehend a felon named Pete Brodie. Brodie did not want to go back to court, however, and started stalking and harassing me in return. The hunter became the hunted. After several threats and some attempts on my life, I shot him in my apartment. Since then I have reduced my hours working for Vinnie chasing skips to part time and have started working for Ranger part time researching companies and individuals. It is a situation that suits both Ranger and me for the time being. On Ranger's side, he is happy he has someone to fill the research desk but, more importantly, he likes having me there so he can keep tabs on me while I get back on my feet. On my side, this provides a regular paycheque – good for paying the rent. And Ranger offers health benefits and flex hours. All in all, a good deal. Unfortunately, the work is as dry as dust and puts my feet to sleep.

"Tell me about not sleeping. Are you having nightmares?" asked Ranger from the closet as he dressed for the day.

"Yeah. I keep reliving shooting Brodie", I said in disgust.

"That is perfectly natural, Babe. Do you want to move in here for a few days, at least until they get the bloodstains out of your carpet?"

And see, that's the problem. I would really like to. But Ranger is not the only man in my life. I had an on-again, off-again relationship with a Trenton cop over the last few years. Joe Morelli is six feet of Italian testosterone. He is a good dog father, a kind and loving boyfriend, and an overly dedicated cop. When Brodie threatened me, Morelli blew up, saying things to me he should not have said. It was an old argument between us. He doesn't want me to be a bounty hunter and feels that my affinity for getting into trouble is dangerous to myself and my family. And in some ways he is right. But on my side I don't like his lack of balance in his life, the danger associated with his job, or his lack of respect for what I do for a living. He wants me to become a wife and a stay-at-home mom, and he does not want to change a thing about himself.

Besides his attitude, I don't know what I even want him to change. I just know I would go nuts as a stay-at-home mom. I'm not even sure what I think about babies. They seem the kind of thing you like when they are smelling sweet and fresh from the bath but once you have to deal with sticky hands in your hair, leftover Lego on the floor, and finger painting on the wall, they lose their appeal. And that's not even taking into account the sleepless nights or poopy diapers.

So, in short, I think we want different things in life and I am not willing to change and neither is he. We had been happily ignoring our issues for quite a while, living in dreamland as an uncommitted couple. But after Brodie was caught, Morelli drew a line in the sand and said I had to quit my job if I wanted to stay with him. I walked away from him instead. I am not exactly regretting it. I think it was a long time in coming, but while I recognize something had to change, I am still grieving the loss of the friendship. He is a good man and I miss him. On Morelli's side, now that his Italian temper has cooled he is regretting the outburst. He has phoned several times to apologize. I have consistently let his messages go to voicemail.

"I think it is better for me to stay at my own place, thanks."

"My place is always available if you change your mind."

I know from experience there is only one bed in the apartment and, although it is technically plenty big enough for both of us, I tend not to be able to keep my hands to myself and I migrate over to his side of the bed when I sleep. And with the unsettled feelings I have been having lately, that sort of migration would be a bad idea. It would be fun for the moment but, until I get my feet back under me, my desire for self-preservation says solo sleeping is the best alternative.

Ranger came out of the closet dressed in his Rangeman uniform – black fatigues, black t-shirt, black hoody, and a gun at his side. Ranger always dresses all in black. It makes it easier to dress in the morning. Everything matches.

"What is up for today?" asked Ranger.

"I am researching some potential employees for Jay Technologies for Tank, and I have that new file from you to research. And a few for Sales, of course." Tank is the head of Operations and is Ranger's right hand man. Built like his name suggests, he is 6'6" with enough muscle to make him as intimidating as hell. He talks even less than Ranger, if that is even possible. Also former Special Forces, Tank and Ranger served together and Tank has had Ranger's back ever since. "Then, this afternoon, I am picking up Lula and we are going to try to clean up my list of outstanding skips. It's only a couple of low-value bonds, but they will still be good to tidy up. And there are a couple of new files that Connie wants me to pick up."

"It is time for you to head back to the shooting range and the gym as well, Babe. I have some time at four o'clock today to train you." Ella, Ranger's housekeeper, cook and general staff mother, came through the door with Ranger's breakfast. He took the tray from her, thanked her, and closed the door behind her.

"I don't want to practice shooting. Bad things happen when I have a gun in my hand."

"Worse things would have happened if you hadn't had a gun in your hand", countered Ranger. "Brodie would have shot you dead. You killed him in self-defense. It was not your fault."

"Yet it was my bullet that shot him. I would say that makes it my fault."

"You can't afford to doubt yourself. You did what you had to do. I will meet you at your desk at five to four and we will go down to the shooting range then."

I did some deep breathing and struggled not to cry. There was nothing I wanted to do less than go and shoot a gun again. "I may not be back from skip chasing in time", I said hopefully.

"This is part of your job. You have to be comfortable shooting a gun, both skill-wise as well as psychologically. I will meet you at your desk just before four o'clock. Which brings me to another point. You know the rules about Rangeman. You need to wear your gun at all times. The last three weeks you have not been wearing it."

"I have it in my purse."

"That is not going to help you if you need it. With the amount your purse holds it might take you an hour to find it." He was right. It would take me some time to find it. Morelli used to say I carried everything except the kitchen sink and, one year for my birthday, he bought me a Barbie-sized kitchen sink to put in my purse. I still have it there. While I might not be able to find my gun in time, all the crap in my purse would make it a sufficient weight to hit someone with. I thought that was a much better self-defense plan. "You need to wear it while you are in the building, just like the rest of the staff. Do you have your holster in your purse as well?"

I considered saying 'no', but I knew Ranger would just get me another from the storeroom. "Yes", I admitted.

"Good. Use it."

I stood up to get another cup of coffee and Ranger snagged me about the waist and sat me down on his lap. "You are going to be okay, Babe. But you have to get back in the saddle. You cannot continue second guessing yourself." He angled his head down for a kiss and, when our tongues touched, heat arrowed straight down to my doodad. I think I might have moaned and I was seriously reconsidering my decision to sleep solo. Ranger pulled back. "I'm sorry, but I have a meeting in ten minutes. What are you going to put on before you leave the apartment today?"

"My gun", I said, resigned. Ranger's lips twitched at the petulant tone to my voice.

"I know you don't like it, but it is important." He put the last mouthful of strawberries in his mouth, drank his last mouthful of coffee, and got up from the table. He went in the bathroom and finished up while I put on my holster and gun and then, smiling a half-smile when he saw me wearing it, walked with me out of the apartment down to the fifth floor.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

I cued up the Songza app on my phone, plugged in my headphones, and opened up the Jay Technologies file. I rely heavily on music and coffee when I work at Rangeman. My desk is located in a nook off the back of the control room. The quiet and dim lights necessary for the monitoring stations on the floor tend to get to you after a while and I have been known to fall asleep periodically. The three cups of coffee I had before I got to my desk left my hands shaking and my heart pumping far too fast. However, I was awake and ready to work to the sounds of the upbeat workout music.

Jay Technologies was considering hiring four applicants, one in the engineering department, one as the accounts payable clerk, one as a receptionist, and one as a line worker. My job was to search the background of each of those applicants to determine if they would be safe hires. The potential receptionist looked pretty standard. A single mother with two young children and no past record or driving infractions. Her ex-husband also had no known priors and no financial concerns. The potential line worker was a married male, young, with one child. A sealed juvenile record but no criminal history as an adult. The potential accounts payable clerk looked to be a safe. There were no outstanding arrest warrants, no driving infractions, his past was wiped clean. The potential engineer was a flyer. She was one of those extremely successful women. Although quite young, she had achieved much in her school career, winning several engineering awards. I looked further but could not find anything more than massive school debt in her background.

I gathered up the files. As I prepared my report for Tank, I looked again at the potential accounts payable clerk, Nigel Lundel. Something seemed hinky with the man. I could not put my finger on it, but I decided to look into it further before I finalized my report. Something was just niggling at me.

I redid the search, pulling up arrest warrants, traffic violations, and deed searches. Nothing. I creeped through Facebook and LinkedIn and finally got a hit. On his feed, I found the names of three companies he had worked for that he had not reported to Jay Technologies. I phoned the first company for a reference and spoke to the head of HR, explaining who I was and why I was calling.

"Hiring Nigel Lundel would be a bad choice and would bring nothing but heartache. He seemed nice and normal when we hired him, but he quickly turned weird, dangerous. He was eventually dismissed due to suspicions of fraud."

"Was he ever convicted?"

"No. It never went to court. The case was dependent upon one testimony in particular and that person recanted their testimony three days before the case was due in court. Scuttlebutt around the water cooler said that Lundel had threatened the witness with torture and death of her family members."

"Do you think he would do it?"

"Yes. The idea of him torturing and killing family members does not seem farfetched. I would strongly recommend the company you represent does not hire Lundel."

I called the two remaining companies and heard the same information – he was charged with fraud but the charges were dropped when the witnesses recanted their statements. In each case the witnesses reported off the record that death threats were made to both their families as well as themselves. And each company said the same thing – he seems like a nice guy until you get to know him, and then you just think he is dangerous and unbalanced. With my recent past I understood how someone who is unbalanced can rock your world and I did not want it to happen to the nice people at Jay Technologies. I wrote details on each of the phone conversations in my report to Tank, then went to drop it on his desk. He was working on the computer.

"The gun looks good on you, Steph. It is nice to see you dressed for the office again", said Tank.

"Yeah, well, I'm still not comfortable wearing it."

"You will get there. Give yourself some time. It has only been three weeks. Have you been to the range recently?"

"No, but apparently Ranger is dragging me there this afternoon."

"Good. You need to stop fearing the gun. It is just another tool you have at your disposal to help you in your job. That's all it is."

"It's a pretty friggin' scary tool", I muttered as I walked back to the break room for a coffee. My hands had stopped shaking and I needed another caffeine boost. I ran into Hal in the break room. Nicknamed Halosaurus, he is as big as a dinosaur and as loyal as a dog. I met Hal a few years ago when he first started working for Ranger and have worked with him several times since including a one-week stint where he acted as my bodyguard.

"Are you talking to yourself, Steph?"

"That's me", I said with a sigh.

"What are you talking about?"

"My hatred of guns."

"Hey, at least it isn't in your cookie jar." It's true. I hate guns so much that when I am not working at Rangeman I generally keep mine in my cookie jar at home. It makes it seem less scary to think it is somewhere as warm and fuzzy as a cookie jar. And it's not like I keep actual cookies in the jar. Cookies don't last long enough in my apartment to make it into the jar. They go straight from the store to my home to my stomach, and if I am really desperate for a sugar fix I skip the step of taking them home.

I poured myself a coffee and grabbed a yogurt parfait, the closest thing to happy food I could find. Ranger does a lot of things right in his company, but his lack of dessert is a definite negative. He thinks of it as devil's food. I think of it as having mood enhancing properties. We always have, and always will, differ in our outlook on eating.

I opened up the file from Ranger and started researching the company and employees of PXM Health Care. I spent the rest of the morning researching and printing off employee and company backgrounds. As I went through the material, I tried to see if anything caught my eye as needing further research. Besides one drug trafficking charge and one possession charge for one of the employees – worrisome as the company manufactures a variety of different drugs – there was nothing I could find to highlight. I walked my file into Ranger's office and dropped it on his desk. My morning was completed and I was ready to go work for Vinnie for the afternoon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

I carried a Clucky Burger combo with a diet coke into the office for me, a clucky strips and fries combo with an iced tea for Connie, and a bucket of extra crispy, large fries, tub of coleslaw, a tub of macaroni salad, and a diet coke for Lula.

"Thanks", said Connie. "I was starving and I could not get away from the phones. Vinnie advertised again. This campaign has been as successful as his 'hot girls will come and get you' campaign. The phone has been ringing off the hook. At least this time the callers don't have the impression you are prostitutes providing home service." Connie is the office manager for the bail bonds office. She is very Italian in every way, from her connections to the mob to her buxom hourglass figure. She is a good person to have on your side, and I am happy to say that she is a good friend of mine.

"Shee-it girl, you look terrible. Your bags are getting darker every day. Are you still not sleeping?" asked Lula around a mouthful of coleslaw. Lula is my other friend at the bail bonds office, and even though she is technically the file clerk, she is my usual partner when I am skip chasing. She is a former ho' with chocolate brown skin and triple the assets I have in the bust region, and double everywhere else. I would not exactly call her fat, but rather she has an overabundance of Lula in both body and spirit. She is as kind-hearted and loyal as she is addicted to wearing size two clothing on a size twenty-two body.

"No. I'm still having nightmares."

"You've got to let it go, girl. It never bothers me when I shoot my gun."

"Yeah, but you haven't killed anyone. I have killed three people."

"True, but I have shot people. I've even shot you." And it was true. A few months ago, Lula shot at a fleeing skip and hit Ranger's car with one shot and grazed my arm with the second. Even though Lula is reliant upon her gun and pulls it out with little provocation, she is a terrible shot. Much worse than me and that is saying something.

"I've shot and killed more people than Morelli, and he is a cop."

"Speaking about Morelli, have you heard from Officer Hottie recently?"

"I hear from him all the time. I let his messages go to voice mail."

"Are you going forgive him?"

"I have already forgiven him for his comments. He was scared and angry, and it all boiled up and came out. I get that. But I can't forget what he said. It was similar to every other argument we've had in the past. Our job choices will always be a stumbling block. And neither of us are willing to change."

"Girl, you've got a problem."

"Tell me about it. But I can't do anything about it today. Today I have two files I want to clean up. Do you want to ride shotgun?"

"Hell, yeah. There is nothing in this office to do other than filing. I have already read my horoscope in all the magazines."

"Two new files have come in as well", said Connie. "Both medium level bonds."

I thanked her, took the files from Connie's hand and walked to the door with Lula. "I have to be at Rangeman by three forty-five for a shooting lesson this afternoon, so this will be a short skip chasing day."

"Ranger is providing shooting lessons again? I could use some lessons, if you know what I mean. He is the hottest looking man I ever did see, and I saw all kinds when I was a ho'. I wonder what his twig looks like. Don't tell me. It would be real disappointin' to find out if it was a small twig. Or that there was a bend in the branch. I would never be able to look at him again."

I had slept with Ranger a handful of times, most recently three weeks ago. I didn't want to say it, but Ranger's twig more resembled a full-sized tree, and there were no knots or crooks in the trunk at all.

We got in the car. "I thought we could go after Virginia Myaneski this afternoon. She is fifteen, and she stole a car to drive to the mall. She had the bad luck of not only getting caught, but she did not realize the vehicle she stole was an undercover police car. She lives in the Burg. It is a professional development day at school today, so she has the day off." The Burg is the part of Trenton in which I grew up. Traditionally a close-knit Italian community with some Eastern Slavic pedigrees thrown in, it has more recently become a huge melting pot of a variety of first generation nationalities. It is a neighbourhood primarily filled with duplexes. Residents are working class and family oriented, and are highly protective of one another.

"She stole a police car? If she was going to steal a car, you would think she could pick a better car than a POS like a police car. Those cars are old. Dented and rusted. If I were her I would have stolen a car more like my Firebird."

Lula had a nice, new, red Firebird. It always astounds me she can afford such an expensive car on the peanuts she earns as a file clerk. She has tried to explain to me that she is leasing and leasing costs less money per month than buying a car. I am not eligible for leasing. I have blown up, crushed and otherwise significantly impaired too many of my cars to qualify for the type of insurance I would need to be able to lease.

We parked two houses down the street from the Myaneski house, the right side of a beige brick duplex located next to the local high school. The garden was crammed with quotation plaques and figurines, so much so it looked like garden paraphernalia was growing there instead of flowers. The house itself was quiet. Lula got out her gun.

"No! No guns!" I said.

"Why not? Someone has to teach that little girl a lesson and what better way to teach that lesson than looking down the barrel of a gun?"

"It isn't our job to teach her a lesson. It is our job to bring her in."

"Hunh. You have all the rules. You need to get past this no-gun thing. You need to get back in the saddle."

"I'm hearing that a lot lately. But I have always said 'no guns'. You just don't always listen to me."

"Hunh." She put her gun back in her purse. "But I'm taking it in my purse, just in case. You don't have your gun with you, do you?"

"Yes, I do. I have my Rangeman gun and it will also stay in my purse." I didn't tell her I had taken out the bullets when I left the Rangeman office. She seemed to find comfort in knowing I had a gun with me.

We walked up to the front door and listened for a few seconds. There was no sound of human life. I rang the doorbell. A dog started barking furiously, but there were no other sounds.

"I bet she is at the mall", said Lula.

"I bet she is, too."

"I think we should go to the mall to look for her."

I privately thought it would be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, but I agreed to go with Lula. A trip to the mall would be good for me personally. I had run out of happy in the last three weeks, and a bout of retail therapy sounded good. We got back in the car and I drove to Quaker Mall. Entering through Macy's, I tried on four pairs of heels, all of which Lula said I should get but none of which I could decide on, four perfume samples, and had a makeover at the beauty counter. We then headed into the mall. I bought two more pairs of yoga pants from Lululemon, and since it was buy one, get the second at half price at Victoria's Secrets, I bought two new matching bra and underwear sets. You can't pass up a deal like that. We did not see Virginia Myaneski while we were there, but in truth I was not looking very hard. And, I did feel marginally better by the time we left.

Lula had more bags leaving the mall then I did. She bought two stretchy tops that looked perfectly respectable on the hanger but when she put them they barely covered her voluptuousness and revealed her midriff. She thought they were perfect. She also bought three new body butters, a new lipstick each to match her new shirts, a pair of stiletto heels, a slinky nightgown for when her honeys come over, and a new magazine for the office. "I haven't read the horoscope in this one yet", she explained. "And I don't want to be stuck doin' no filing when I get back."

I dropped her off at the bonds office and returned to Rangeman. I keyed myself into the underground parking and parked my car in one of Ranger's four personal spots. He has three cars to choose from – a Porsche Turbo 911, a Porsche Cayenne, and a Toyota Tacoma truck. Like Ranger's fleet cars, his personal cars are all new, black, clean, and in pristine condition. I had one car, an old Honda Accord, which I parked in his remaining fourth spot. Parking in his garage always makes me want to sing "which one of these doesn't belong with the others?" My car is old, dirty, and with the odd rust spot it is not in pristine condition. Even though it is also black, it definitely does not belong. But Ranger does not seem to mind when I park in one of his personal spots. I am glad. It is close to the elevators.

I got to my desk in just enough time to put bullets back in the gun and put on the holster.

"Ready?" asked Ranger.

"Ready as I will ever be."

"Is your gun loaded?"

"Of course. Do you think I would leave my gun unloaded?" I asked huffily.

"Nice try. I saw you loading it on the feed." Damn. The entire building, inside and out, is monitored. A Rangeman staff member watches the feed at all times in the control room, but I forgot that Ranger periodically checks the feed himself as well. Next time I will load my gun before I get to the Rangeman facility.

"I brought some bullets from the storeroom anyway for when you run out."

Oh, goody.

We took the elevator down to the basement and walked down the hall to the gun range. It was quiet. There was no one practicing on the range and there were no people in the holding cells going ape-shit. I had hoped to find a deranged escapee before I got to the range, a major problem that would require Ranger's attention and would get me out of practicing, but had no such luck. The closer I got to the range, the more I was dragging my feet.

"I am terrible at shooting. It is dangerous to give me a gun", I started to argue.

"That is why you are practicing, Babe. You need to be comfortable with and proficient at shooting it."

"I don't want to do this."

"I gathered that." Ranger cued up a target and sent it back to the rear wall. "Now draw your weapon and aim for the centre of the target." I unholstered my gun and fired the full clip into the target. I got several bulls-eyes, but my hands were shaking and I was crying by the end of the round. "That is good. You have improved a lot since you started shooting lessons a month ago." Ranger took the gun away from me and refilled the clip. I swiped angrily at the falling tears and did some deep breathing to try to get myself under control. Ranger ignored the tears. "Now, again", Ranger said as he handed my gun back to me. "Think about how angry you are this time. Not about how scared you are, or how guilty you feel." I shot the gun again, getting more bulls-eyes.

"Good. Now this time focus on your anger and pretend the target is somebody. It could be Brodie, could be Morelli, could be me. Could be one of your current skips. Just remember to harness your anger." He cued up a body target. "Aim for the chest." My hand started to shake at the outline of a person on the target and I got very few bulls-eyes. "Again", he said as he cued up another target and I refilled my clip. I was shaking so hard I kept dropping bullets on the ground. Ranger took the clip back and finished filling the clip for me.

I'm not sure exactly who I was aiming for. It don't think it was Morelli. I felt like I had forgiven him. And I don't think it was Ranger. He had done nothing wrong. I don't even think it was Brodie, although perhaps it should have been. I was angry at myself. I was angry I was not bouncing back with my usual resiliency. I was angry I cared about killing someone who was about to kill me. And I was angry I had lost my confidence and my happiness. The tears continued to stream down my face as I shot another clip into the target, eventually stopping not because I ran out of bullets but because I was crying too hard to see the target. I put my gun down and, sniffling, reached in my pocket for a tissue. Ranger gathered me up into a tight hug and, not saying anything, rubbed my back in comforting circles.

I eventually got control of myself and, embarrassed, pulled away from Ranger. "I'm sorry. I have mascara running down my face, don't I?"

"Well…"

"It's okay. You don't have to say it. I look like a wreck."

"No, you look beautiful." I made a face as he picked up my gun and filled the clip. He put it in my holster and draped his arm around my shoulders to lead me out of the range. "Is that the first time you have cried since the first few days?"

"Not including in my sleep, yes."

"Then it sounds like you were due."

"I don't like crying. It makes your eyes hurt and go all red."

"Yeah, but you have to let your emotions out somehow, Babe. It's not good to keep them bottled up inside you. They will just fester and eat you up." He angled me onto the elevator and pressed seven. I followed him into his apartment, leaving him to go to the bathroom to wash my face. I looked in the mirror. Eeek! More than just my mascara ran. So did the foundation, eye shadow and concealer that the beauty counter had applied during my makeover. I took out some face wash from my drawer and removed the makeup. Scrubbed clean and feeling a bit better, I joined Ranger in his office. "I have some work to do. It is an hour until dinner. Did you want to have a nap and then stay for supper?" It sounded good. I was unsettled and didn't really want to be alone.

I lay down on the bed and immediately conked out. Ranger kissed me awake an hour later. "Ella has brought dinner and it looks really good. Do you want to get up or do you want to sleep?"

"I'll get up, thanks."

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, I am." And that is the thing about me. A good cry and an hour's sleep will do wonders for my outlook. I was pleased. My resiliency was coming back.

"Whose head were you envisioning on your target this afternoon?" he asked as he took a Mexican lasagna out of the oven and poured glasses of red wine while I ran glasses of water from the fridge dispenser and pulled the salad and dressing out.

I shifted a bit uncomfortably as I said "mine." He looked at me with eyebrows raised and waited for me to say more. We sat down and started our meals while I got my thoughts together. "I am angry at myself for letting this get to me. I am angry at myself for putting myself in the situation I was in. And most of all I am angry at myself because, if I had to do it over again, I would do it exactly the same way.

"But I am angry at the world as well. I am angry at my mother, because she is heavily pressuring me to quit my job and is upset Joe and I split. It's the no grandkids thing. Just because she was happy as a stay-at-home mom means she thinks I will be happy with the same thing. I don't think I will, though. I am angry at my grandmother for exaggerating the story about me killing Brodie in the neighbourhood. I know she doesn't mean to sensationalize it, but the end result is people are treating me as a murderer and hiding their children behind them as I walk by. It feels like my whole life changed with that one bullet and, in many ways, it did."

"There are more effective ways to deal with your anger rather than on shooting a target version of yourself and holding it all in until you get nightmares. Tomorrow we are going into the gym to work on the mats."

"Do I have to? I hate working out", I pouted.

"You will like it tomorrow. You will be able to practice self-defense and take all that aggression out on me. It's a much healthier way of dealing with anger." Ranger finished his last mouthful of wine and pushed aside his empty plate. I dished up seconds onto my own.

Food is my Valium. My family uses food to tranquilize all of life's problems away. Lasagnas, stuffed peppers, roast pork, turkey tetrazzini, chicken divan, rice pudding, chocolate brownies, oatmeal raisin cookies, ice cream, apple pie, Vienna cookies, chocolate pudding, we eat it all. I finished my second helping and eyed the casserole dish for a third. Remembering that my jeans no longer button at the waist any more – I have been using food as my Valium extensively over the last three weeks – with a sigh I turned away from the dish.

Ranger's lips twitched as he watched me fight with myself over having a third helping. "Cheer up, Babe. Things will only get better."

We put away the leftover casserole and salad, and put our dishes in the dishwasher. Then I took my wine into the office and we sat on the couch to watch some TV. I cuddled into Ranger's side and his arm came down around me, making me feel nice and secure. I stayed there, feeling safe for the first time in a long time, until it was time for me to go home.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

I woke up, bathed in sweat, sheets tangled around my torso, to the same nightmare I had experienced every night over the last three weeks.

_Brodie saying "I am going to kill you, bitch. You shot me and now you are going to die." The sound of my gun going off and seeing Brodie fall to the floor, blood spreading across his chest and leaking out onto my carpet. Morelli yelling at me, saying it was all my fault. _

Despite the fact it was still dark out, I got up and walked into the kitchen, skirting the area of carpet still bloodstained. Rex was running enthusiastically on his hamster wheel. When I turned on the light he stopped and stood, blinking his beady black eyes at me in confusion. He turned back towards his wheel until I said "do you want some food?" Then he stared at me, whiskers twitching, body vibrating in excitement.

Shaking off the vestiges of the nightmare, I searched in the fridge for my drug of choice. My body was vibrating in excitement, too. I took out a bag of two-bite brownies and an aerosol can of whipped cream. Happy food. I opened a bag of raisins and put one in Rex's dish. He scurried over, stuffed the raisin in his mouth, and ran over to hide in his soup can hidey-hole. Bliss in hamster-land.

Not bliss in Stephanie-land. I started the coffee and sprayed a dollop of whipped cream on a brownie and shoved it all in my mouth at once. Whoever named them two-bite brownies was much more of a dainty eater than I am. Seriously. Who actually eats them in two-bites? I would have called them one-bite brownies. I sprayed some whipped cream directly into my mouth, then prepared another brownie-whipped cream concoction for eating.

I ate standing up. Everybody knows calories don't count if the food is consumed standing up. It is only when you are sitting down that calories have a chance to grab hold. And since I had resorted to wearing stretchy yoga pants lately, I could use all the help I could get.

Food worked its usual magic. After several brownie and whipped cream masterpieces, my emotions were steadier even if my stomach wasn't. I poured a coffee and put the remaining brownies and whipped cream away before jumping in the shower. After a long, hot shower the coffee and sugar had kicked in and I felt remotely human again. I blasted my hair with the hair dryer, put some concealer on the black circles under my eyes, and gunked my eyelashes up with mascara. I looked in the mirror and stuck out my tongue. My eye bags would soon need a bell hop to carry them around. I threw on a pair of my new black yoga pants, a black Rangeman stretchy t-shirt, and a too-large hoody I had scammed from Ranger's closet. I rolled up the cuffs and grabbed my purse. I was as ready as I would get for the day.

I walked into Rangeman at six thirty and headed straight for my desk. I put on the holster and gun – God, I hate that thing. It makes my stomach feel squishy – and turned on the desk lamp and computer. While the computer was booting up I went to the break room to grab a coffee, running into Miguel while I was there. "Just coming on shift, or off?" I asked. Ranger's patrol and monitoring staff work around the clock in three shifts – seven to three, three to eleven, and eleven to seven – on a two-week rotation.

"Just coming on. I wanted to do a work out before my shift. I am in the control room for the first four hours and on patrol the next four. How is the research desk going?"

I grimaced. "Slowly. I am just thankful I installed the Songza app on my phone. You would be distracted on the floor by the snores coming from my desk otherwise."

"I hear you. I remember when I was doing that job. The quiet and dim lights on the floor are perfectly conducive to sleep. I think there were a few times when I nodded off. I heard you made a good save on one of Jay Technologies' potential hires."

"Thanks. I didn't want to see anyone else threatened by this guy if I could help it. It's a shame people are too afraid to come forward to charge this joker. He needs to be arrested and put in jail."

"I agree." Miguel picked up his coffee and headed to the floor. On my side, I looked over the breakfast selections and decided my stomach was too unsettled from brownies and whipped cream to eat anything else. I poured myself a coffee and added cream. Then, taking my coffee to my workstation, I settled down into researching potential companies and private citizens for the Sales department.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five **

I grabbed a ham and swiss on a Kaiser, a container of fruit salad and a to-go cup of coffee out of the break room on my way to the bonds office. In the elevator I ran into Ranger. "You were on the floor early again. Still having problems sleeping?"

"Unfortunately."

"Do you need to be at Vinnie's soon or do you have time to eat your lunch with me before you go?"

"I have time first. I left it open-ended as to when I meet with Lula to chase skips." I followed him into his office.

"I have some time to work in the gym with you at five this afternoon. Do you want to stay for dinner afterwards?" I thanked him for the offer and agreed to stay. It was family dinner night at my parents and I wanted an excuse to miss it. It is always difficult to be with all the noise and confusion associated with my sister's four kids, but not having Morelli there with me would make it even more difficult. First of all, there will be the concern that I am once again single, and secondly, my mother is on a roll ranting about my need to quit my job. Working on very little sleep, I just did not think I could take the comments.

"Tell me about the cases you are working on for Vinnie."

"I have four open files. The first, a low level bond, is for a fifteen year old girl who stole an undercover police car. As Lula says, she must not be very smart. Why would you otherwise steal a POS like a police car? She was trying to get to the mall though, and no one would give her a ride. The second, also a low level bond, is a man who stole beer and then was arrested in a drunk driving incident. The police report said he had been trying to drink the evidence. I also have two newer medium level bonds. One is a teenager who took her dog for a walk by dragging it down the street out the window of a moving car. The second is an identity theft. She lives in an apartment building and stole a new credit card from her neighbour. She was caught when she used the credit card in a store where her neighbour worked the cash. The neighbour recognized both the thief as well as her own name on the credit card. The arrest report says the police found fifteen other cards in different names in the thief's purse."

"Do you need help with any of them?"

"No thanks, I am good." Ranger was the one who taught me everything I know about skip chasing and, when the skips are particularly violent and dangerous, he will still step in if I am having trouble. While I appreciate his help, I try to handle things as best as I can on my own. While I am more of a bumbler and he is more of a professional, I usually eventually get my felon. And besides, these skips did not appear to be particularly dangerous. "What are you doing this afternoon?"

"I am working out the design for the rework of the control room. I am adding two new monitoring stations to the floor. We have enough clients now that the service is deteriorating. It is simply not possible for two staff to monitor all of our clients effectively. This means you will be moved into your own office. I am keeping you on the Operations floor, but will subdivide Jeremy's office to make room for you."

Thank God. No more dim lights and the need to whisper when you are on the phone. And hopefully no more sleeping.

I cleaned up my garbage and stood. Ranger did the same thing. He walked over to me as I was saying goodbye and gave me a hug. He gave me a light and friendly kiss that quickly turned into something much more serious. I found myself leaning into him as heat flooded through my body. I broke away before it went any farther.

The fact of the matter is that I was confused. I love both Morelli and Ranger. My relationship with Morelli was over, but that didn't mean I no longer loved him. I can't turn it on and off like that. But I also love Ranger. It would be easy to hop into bed with him and I have fallen prey to doing the easy thing periodically in the past. But emotionally right now I was a mess and it wasn't fair to either Ranger or myself to use him on the rebound.

I met Lula at the bonds office and pulled out the Myaneski file. It was only one o'clock, and she should have been in school. If there is one thing I hate, it is picking up skips at school or in front of their parents or little children. Okay, I guess that it is three things I hate. Either way, I don't like capturing teenagers in front of all their friends. There are two options in which the capture could go. It can either make a martyr out of them, in which case the teens will all have learned that it is cool to break the law, or it will ostracize the teen when they get back to school, which my thought says could force the teen into a more serious life of crime out of frustration. I put the Myaneski file aside for following up later in the day and took out the other outstanding low bond.

Jack Sprat – honest to God, that is his name – was arrested for drunk driving as well as theft. He had stolen two cases of beer and held the evidence in his back seat. He started to drink the beer as he tried to get away. Unfortunately for him, he got pulled over for drunk driving. Police put together the theft with the beer cases in the back seat and arrested him on the spot. Lula and I decided to go after Sprat.

"I probably would be a drinker if I had a name like Jack Sprat, too", said Lula.

"I wonder if he is lean?" I asked. Lula looked at me oddly. "You know, the nursery rhyme 'Jack Sprat'?" When Lula still didn't seem to know what I was talking about, I recited the poem. "Jack Sprat could eat no fat. His wife could eat no lean. And so between them both, you see, they licked the platter clean. Jack ate all the lean. Joan ate all the fat. The bone they picked it clean, then they gave it to the cat."

"Hunh. Why would you give a bone to a cat?"

"I don't know. I never really thought about it."

"I wouldn't want no name from no nursery rhyme. That is why I am glad I got the name Lula. My name comes from a crack addicted old clown that my mother met when she was pregnant with me. Much better."

Hunh. If you say so.

"Where does your name come from?" asked Lula.

"If I was a boy I was supposed to be called Stefano after my grandfather on my father's side. My father was sure I would be a boy and refused to consider any names for girls. So when I was born, my father was disappointed. My mother named me Stephanie to honour my grandfather and appease my father."

"Did it work? Was your father appeased?"

"I guess so, although I am still a trial to him."

"Has your mother eased up on you yet?"

"Not at all. She is as determined as ever to get me to quit. She even called Vinnie's wife, Lucille, and asked her to tell Vinnie to fire me."

"He fired you?" Lula sounded horrified.

"No, Vinnie asked me if I was able to do my job and I said yes. He then told me I better not fuck it up, or Lucille would hang him up by his balls. Don't you love working for family?"

"I don't have that problem. I only had my mother and she barely knew when I was in the room. She never would have cared enough about me to want me to quit a dangerous job. She only cared about her next fix. She died when I was sixteen. I have been on my own ever since."

I counted my blessings. My mother was difficult at times, but she was trying to help me in her own way. I thought about how I had been avoiding her calls, and vowed to call her back after I got home that evening.

Jack Sprat lived in an apartment in North Trenton. The apartment was a bare bones type of place. There was no landscaping, the asphalt was ribboned with cracks, and there was no elevator. The outdoor parking lot showed Sprat's car. I phoned his home number and, when he answered the phone, I immediately hung up. "He's in", I said. Lula and I hauled ourselves out of the car and walked in the lobby of the building. There was no security system on the building. We were able to just enter and walk up the three flights of stairs to Sprat's apartment.

We knocked on the door. Sprat opened the door a few inches, leaving the security chain on. The smell of day-old beer wafted out from his pores, his shirt was stained from multiple meals, and his face had a glow from today's current beer consumption. I put my foot in the door so he could not close it and explained to him he had missed his court date and we were there to take him into court to reschedule.

"S'what?"

I explained to him again that he had missed his court date and we were there to take him into court to reschedule. He shook his head and I swear I heard the loose screws rattling around.

"S'what?"

I explained again. When he just looked at me, stupefied, I said "open the door. You have to let us in now." He lurched to the side and stood back, leaning against the wall. He did not, however, remove the security chain. I looked at Lula and raised my eyebrows.

"Can I shoot it with my gun?" she asked, reaching into her purse.

"No! No guns!" I did not want to say it, but with Lula's bad aim she would likely hit me instead, even if I was standing behind her.

"You're no fun", she said as she took five steps down the hall. Putting her shoulder down like a linebacker, she barreled into the door with enough force to pop the chain. She hit the door and kept on going, the door banging into the wall with so much force the ceiling shook and drywall dust floated down into our eyes. Sprat looked at Lula with big round glassy eyes, a look of incomprehension on his face.

"S'what's up?"

"Ow", said Lula. She righted herself and rubbed her shoulder. "Do you think Vinnie would give me paid time off for that?"

"Somehow I doubt it", I answered. "Bond enforcement", I said to Sprat. I took my cuffs and restrained his wrists behind his back.

"S'what?" he asked, and started to struggle. He took me by surprise as he toppled down onto the ground, taking me with him. While Lula closed and locked all his windows and got his apartment keys, I stood up again. Looking down in disgust at Sprat, I listened to him crying "no! "N'jail."

Lula walked through, jingling the keys in her hand as she looked down at Sprat, shaking her head. "Pathetic. Friggin' pathetic. No wonder his name is Jack Sprat." She went to the closet and got a pair of running shoes. I wedged his feet into them and did up the laces. "You know, whenever I see you do that I always think how funny it would be for you to tie the shoes together. But I think this loser will have enough trouble staying on his feet. We don't need to help matters at all."

Between the two of us and a lot of swearing, we were able to lift him up onto his feet and steady him enough that he stayed there. We walked him out to the hall, shut and locked the door behind us and, with one of us on each side of Sprat, tried to escort him out to my car. He would not come. He dug in his heels and refused to go anywhere with us, repeating over and over "n'jail".

Leaving Lula to steady Sprat against the wall, I ran back into his apartment and helped myself to a beer from his fridge. I relocked his door and joined them in the hall. "Do you want this beer?" I asked. Sprat nodded his head, straining his head towards the beer and opening and closing his mouth like a little bird waiting for the worm. I walked backwards down the hall, keeping the beer just out of his reach. Sprat lurched along, following the beer down the hall. Lula steadied him on the stairs as we walked down, me backwards, all the while holding the beer in front of him. When we got to the car I put him in the backseat. Getting behind the wheel, I said "you cannot drink your beer right now since your hands are behind you. When we get to the precinct I will take you into the docking station and I will give you your beer there."

"Bweer. N'jail", he said.

I drove back to the bonds office and dropped Lula off with arrangements for me to pick her up again when I was done at the police station. Lula did not want to come with me to the precinct. Despite her change in profession from hooker to file clerk, she was still nervous around cops and tried to avoid them at all costs. With my break-up with Morelli, I was not feeling any more confident than Lula going into the station. I hoped I wouldn't run into Joe while I was there.

I parked at the drop off doors and hauled Sprat out of the car. Performing the fastest drop off in history, I raced out of the parking lot and back to the bonds office before Morelli could be alerted to my presence.

Picking up Lula, we decided to go after Myaneski again. I drove to her house, parking two houses down the street. We surveyed the neighbourhood. It was relatively quiet. There were two little girls skipping on the driveway four houses down the street, and a senior out tending her flowers across the street and down one house. I would prefer to capture the girl without spectators, but what can you do? Lula and I weren't going to lose an opportunity if we could help it.

We rang the doorbell and waited, listening to the dog barking as it ran to the front door. After waiting a few minutes, I rang the doorbell again. After waiting a few more minutes I rang the doorbell again. A moment later a rumple haired teenager came to the door. "Are you never going to give up? I am trying to take a nap."

"Virginia Myaneski?"

"Yes?"

"Bond enforcement", I said, and snagged one of her wrists in cuffs. "Are your parents home?"

"No, and you can't do this. HELP! HELP! THEY ARE TRYING TO KIDNAP ME!" The little girls stopped skipping and one of them ran inside to get her mother. The gardener got up as fast as her arthritic knees would let her and walked across the street towards us.

I could see that this was heading south fast. "Where are your parents now?" I asked.

"I am not telling. HELP! HELP! CALL THE POLICE!"

"Call the police. Then they can take your sorry ass off to jail for us. You can explain to them why you stole one of their cars", said Lula.

"What are you doing with Virginia?" asked the gardening granny as she walked up the front walkway.

I clicked the other cuff on Virginia's other wrist and held onto her with one hand, rooting around in my bag with the other. "Virginia stole a police car a little while ago when she wanted to go to the mall and no one would take her. Her family took out a bond to pay for her bail. A week ago she was supposed to show up in court and answer to the charges. She failed to appear. This means that she is now a wanted felon." By now the little girl's mother had joined the group in front of the Myaneski house. "I have my Right to Apprehend papers here if you would like to see them. However, if you would prefer to have the police come to pick up Virginia in the back of the cruiser, that is all right with me. I get paid either way."

"Virginia!" said the little girl's mother, "you are Jessica's babysitter! How does this look for you to be taken away by the police? I don't think I want you babysitting my daughter again."

I looked at Virginia and saw the tears rolling down her face. She rubbed her nose against her shoulder, leaving a trail of snot across her sleeve in a shiny track. "Why did you not just show up at court in the first place?"

"My m-m-mother told me that they w-w-would put me in j-j-jail, and that they w-w-would make me use the t-t-toilet in front of everybody."

"I hear you. Those open toilets scare everyone", said Lula. "What I want to know is why you wanted to steal a police car in the first place? If you were going to get charged with theft, why would you not make it worth your while and steal a decent car?"

"It was easy. I didn't realize it was a police car. I just noticed he left the keys in the car when he went in to buy some doughnuts."

"Now you have missed your court date, you have to go back into the station and go through the whole process again to obtain a new date. We have the right to take you in now. We can either take you in personally, or we can call the police and have them pick you up and take you in. What I would suggest, no matter what option you choose, is for us to call your parents and let them know what is happening. I will call your mother now – what is her number?" Punching in Mrs. Myaneski's number, I called her, introduced myself and explained the situation. I then held the phone to Virginia's ear and let her talk to her mother. By this time people were starting to arrive home from work and came over to join the other neighbours on the front lawn.

Virginia got off the phone. "My parents will meet me here in a few minutes. My mom said she would prefer for me to go to the station in a police car."

"You certainly seem to like them a lot", said Lula.

I dialed dispatch and asked for a squad car to come and pick Virginia up. By the time the cops showed up the group had grown to fifteen neighbours and three dogs on the front lawn. Eddie Gazurra and Thomas Nilchinni were the two officers in the car.

"Causing problems again, Steph?" asked Eddie. I had known Eddie since I was in diapers. We had attended school together and he was now married to my cousin, Shirley-the-whiner.

"That's me. Little Miss Trouble Maker."

"How are you doing? I haven't seen you around for a while."

"I am working part-time with Vinnie and part-time doing research at Rangeman right now. I'm not sure how long it will last. Research puts me to sleep. But it's safe for the time being."

"I wasn't on duty when everything went down three weeks ago and I've often wondered since how you were doing. Shirley and I are there for you if you need us."

"Thanks, Eddie." I swallowed back tears.

"What went down three weeks ago?" asked Virginia.

I ignored her. "Virginia's mother is on her way over here and should be here soon. If I can get my paperwork signed and my cuffs back, I will pass over Virginia to you." We transferred cuffs and I left Virginia with Thomas and walked with Eddie back to the squad car.

"I am serious, Steph. I can't imagine what you are going through. I know Morelli looks like shit and he is barking at everyone and anyone in the office who dares to get in his way, and he wasn't there when it all happened. If you need me, you know where I am."

"Thanks", I said, and reached up and kissed his cheek. I took the paperwork out of his hands and walked back to Lula, who was shifting from one foot to another and looking nervously at Thomas. "I've got our paperwork, Lula. Let's roll. I'm in training this afternoon and I can't be late."

"Are you doing more shooting lessons?" asked Lula.

"No. Self-defense training."

"I wouldn't mind getting all hot and sweaty in the gym with Ranger. Do you think he would teach me self-defense?"

"No, I am pretty sure he only trains Rangeman staff. And he only trains me personally because he feels sorry for me. You are better at self-defense than I am. You always have your signature move to fall back on."

"Yeah, that's true. What is my signature move again?"

"Jumping on them and squishing them like a little bug."

"Oh, yeah. WHAM! That signature move."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

I ran into Tank as I rushed into Ranger's office. Literally. It was like running into a brick wall. "Ow", I said.

"Are you all right?" he asked, steadying me on my feet.

"Fine. Just late."

"That's all right. I want to talk to you for a moment before we go into the gym", said Ranger. Tank left the room and shut the door behind him. I sat down and Ranger came around his desk to sit beside me.

"What's up?" I asked, worried by the concerned look on his face.

"Tank just came to tell me our general line received a disturbing call this afternoon. An unknown person called and asked who the researcher is on staff. The guard gave out your name. The person then said you should retract the report you made to Jay Technologies or else you would die." My vision went cobwebby and I started breathing really fast. He reached over and held my hand. "Breathe, Babe. Remember to breathe." He gave me a minute, then said "Tank said there was one person in particular who would benefit if that report was retracted."

"Yes. Nigel Lundel. He has a history of fraud but they can never convict him. He leaves no paper trail and all the witness rescind their testimony due to threats. He has done it three times now. He has the same MO each time."

"Tank has talked to the guard working reception, and has asked him to make sure he does not hand out any personal information again. In the meantime, I want you to be on your guard and to let me know if anything suspicious or unusual happens."

My breath hitched as I struggled to get control of myself. "Okay. I am sorry for acting so strongly to all this. I would not have if Brodie hadn't happened."

"I know, Babe. But there is no point getting too excited about this yet. It could just be someone blowing off steam."

"I know."

"Are you up for some time in the gym? I think it would be good for you to blow off some steam as well."

"If I have to." Ranger smiled at my grumpy tone.

"Tell me, what made you late today?" I told him about Jack Sprat and having to bribe him with a beer to get him to cooperate in taking him back to jail, and I told him about Virginia Myaneski and how her apprehension had turned into a three-ring circus.

Ranger smiled. "I can just envision you walking down the hall with a beer in your hand, leading someone like he was a bull on a ring. You may not rely upon your self-defense skills much, but you certainly do well with your smarts."

"Does this mean I don't have to do self-defense training?" I asked hopefully.

"No, you still have to do the training. You never know when you will need it. You will only need it once to make all the hours training in the gym worthwhile."

Getting to the gym, Ranger scrambled the feed to the security cameras as I stripped down to my sports bra. We practiced getting out of a variety of holds, with Ranger attacking me from behind, from in front, and on the floor. By the end of it I was hot, out of breath, and frustrated to the point of tears. Ranger had barely broken a sweat. He threw me a bottle of water and a towel, and opened a bottle of water for himself. "You have definitely improved since you first started training. A few weeks ago you would not have been able to get out of anything. Are you ready for a shower and some dinner? If you want, I will give you a massage after dinner so you don't seize up."

Hell, yeah.

* * *

I woke up crying to the same nightmare of seeing Brodie's blood spread across his shirt as he fell to the floor dead, once again hearing Morelli yell at me, telling me it was my fault for putting my family and friends in danger. An arm lay heavily across my chest and, still too asleep to register where I was, I instinctively pushed the arm back and rolled out of bed, landing on the balls of my feet and stood poised, ready to fight. I woke up fully as Ranger spoke soothingly to me. "You're okay, Babe. You're safe. You're all right. It's over. Everybody's safe."

My body slowly lost the tension. "I'm sorry", I said. "I didn't remember falling asleep here."

"You fell asleep during your massage and you have been so tired lately I thought I would just let you sleep. Want to tell me about your nightmare?"

"It's the same one that I have had every night for the past three weeks. I shoot Brodie. He dies. Morelli yells at me and blames it all on me." Shaking, I walked into the bathroom to wash my face, Ranger following me. "It's the same thing, over and over again. It was pretty awful when it was happening, but I thought it would be over now. It should be over now. I just can't seem to get my head above it." Ranger held a towel out to me to dry my face.

"Do you think Morelli is right? That this was your fault? I know what I think, but what do you think?"

"Sometimes I do think it was my fault. If I was more professional, maybe this would not have happened. Lula and I are like Larry, Curly and Mo. We get the job done eventually, but we are pretty inept along the way. If we were more professional, we would have caught him the first time when he threw mud in my eye. Or the second time, when he threw money at us and Lula dove for the money, tripping me."

"That doesn't give him the right to threaten you and try to kill you."

"I know." I walked past Ranger into his closet and borrowed one of his t-shirts to put on over the bra and underwear I had been wearing when Ranger had given me the massage. "But if I had been able to apprehend him sooner, I would not have given him the chance to make those threats." I stalked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. Looking inside, I saw some leftover lasagna, salad, cheese, pickles, milk, cream, apples, oranges, baby carrots, celery sticks, salad dressings and butter. On the counter was half a loaf of crusty bread and half a bottle of red wine. I pulled out the lasagna and put a piece on a plate. Ranger watched me in silence as I put the remaining lasagna back in the fridge. I got out a fork and scooped a bite into my mouth. I could feel my heart rate begin to slow as I chewed.

"Are you hungry? You aren't even waiting until it is heated", asked Ranger with a smile.

"No, not at all."

Ranger looked confused. "If you aren't hungry, then why are you eating?" he asked.

"Food makes me feel better. I feel like I can breathe when I eat. I know it probably doesn't make sense to you, but it works for me."

Ranger came over and took the plate out of my hands, putting it down on the counter. I immediately started feeling panicky again. He gave me a hug. "Come to bed, Babe. The lasagna will still be here in the morning." He kissed the top of my head and rubbed my back as shudders ripped through my body. "Breathe. I've got you. Everyone is safe", he murmured over and over again as I buried my head in his shoulder and cried out my distress. Then, when I was limp and finally empty of tears for the time being, he picked me up and carried me to bed, gathered me in his arms, and gently soothed me back to sleep.

* * *

"So, do you get up often in the middle of the night for a snack?" asked Ranger over breakfast the next morning.

"Enough that I am now unable to button my jeans", I said with an embarrassed bravado.

"So is this a nightly practice?"

"Yes. I usually wake up, eat until I feel sick, then get ready for work and come in here. That's why I have been here before sunrise every day for the past three weeks." I felt embarrassed to be admitting all this to Ranger, and my shame made it impossible for me to look him in the eye.

"Babe." He waited until I looked at him. "There is no shame to be going through what you are going through. What you are feeling is natural. However, how you are choosing to deal with it is self-destructive. You are only hurting yourself. You cannot continue this way. You know that, right?"

"I know. But I don't know any other way."

"There are lots of other ways. We can train in the gym every day, we can practice in the shooting range, you can get balance back in your life by spending time with family and friends, just for starters. You need to rebuild your life. You don't have to eat your problems away."

"Eating is easier."

"It won't be when you have to buy all new clothing because yours no longer fits."

And said like that, I could see his point. As it was, my wardrobe choices had narrowed considerably over the past three weeks.

"I will make some time this afternoon so we can train some more. Working out will release endorphins, which will in turn make you feel better. It will be much more effective than eating, I promise you. And if it doesn't work, at least you can eat extra knowing you earned the food. I would also be happy if you moved back in here until you get back on your feet. I am worried about you."

"I keep thinking that maybe if I face up to my fears, they will go away."

"That is important, too. But you may not be ready to do that yet and that is okay. Recover on your own time. Just make sure you are recovering, not masking your feelings." He reached across the table and played with my fingers, then reached up and tucked my hair behind my ears. "I love you, Babe. I'm here to help you through this, every step of the way."

"Thanks", I said, choking back tears.

"Now what do you have on for today?"

"I need to go home and get some clean underwear. These stink from training yesterday. Then I should probably go and make nice with my mother. I have some open files for Vinnie, and I have a few potential clients to research for Sales. So, a busy day doing nothing in particular. What about you?"

"I have a meeting at PXM this morning to go over the information you found out. Good catch on the drug related charges for that one employee, by the way. I will be doing a site inspection at the same time. I am having lunch here in the office, if you want to join me, and then I have work to do on a new client but at four o'clock I would be available to train with you in the gym again. Perhaps when you go back to your place you could pack a bag with enough clothing for a few days." When I started to resist, he said "think about it, all right? The offer is open any time. You may find it easier having someone there to talk to about the terror when your nightmares come." He put his dirty breakfast dishes on the tray for Ella and, dropping a kiss on the top of my head, he went into the bathroom to finish getting ready for the day.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven **

I had a long, hot shower at Ranger's, taking off my dirty underwear and putting my yoga pants back on commando style, and borrowing another one of Ranger's t-shirts and hoodies. I left my dirty laundry in Ranger's hamper. I knew Ella would not mind throwing my clothes in the wash with Ranger's when she did the laundry.

I live in a utilitarian apartment building on the outskirts of the Burg, the community in which I grew up. I have a one-bedroom on the second floor and, while the appliances are ancient and the supply of hot water is limited, I like it. It has an elevator, plenty of parking, a fire escape off my bedroom that I can pretend is a balcony, and forgiving residents who do not hold my frequent police visits against me. In fact, I think my numerous break-ins and murdered bodies found in my apartment – not all done by me – liven up many of the seniors' lives.

I said "hi" to Mr. Wolenski as I walked through the lobby to the stairs. He was sitting on his walker, watching the world go by.

"You just missed your young man, chicky", he said.

"Which young man is that, Mr. Wolenski?"

"I don't know this one. I never saw him before. He was up at your apartment for the longest time though. He said he was waiting for you, but he couldn't wait any longer. I'm glad you have many men in your life. You are only young once. You need to have fun while you still can."

"What time did this guy come and when did he leave?" I asked, my heart starting to pound.

"Let's see. He got here shortly after I came down, and I came down shortly after the morning news program ended. Then he was here until about twenty minutes ago."

"Thanks, Mr. Wolenski. If he comes back and you see him, could you please call me?" I gave him my card and showed him my cell number.

My mouth going dry with fear, I took the stairs up to the second floor and creeped down to my apartment. The door was ajar and a terrible smell was coming from inside. Taking my gun out of my purse, I took the safety off and entered my apartment. With gun ready, I quickly but thoroughly walked through my apartment, checking behind the curtains, under the bed, in the closets, and in the shower. There was no one there. By the time I finished I was gagging and my eyes were watering. My heart rate starting to slow to a normal rate, I closed and locked the front door and went to open the windows.

As I passed through the dining room I noticed an envelope on the table. I got some gloves from my purse and carefully opened it, touching the paper as little as possible. I pulled out a paper and read the message _"Retract your report to Jay Technologies, or I will hurt you so bad you will wish you never took the job at Rangeman."_ Not exactly the most original threat message I had ever received, but with my recent experience it was effective nonetheless. Shaking, I put the paper down on the table and went to check on Rex. He was hiding in his soup can. Telling him I was back and there was no reason for him to be scared, I took a jar of peanuts out of the cupboard and put one in his dish. Rex scampered out of his tin and shoved it in his mouth before scurrying back into his can again. Apparently Rex is a stress eater as well.

Knowing Ranger was off site at a meeting, I phoned Tank and told him what had happened. "I'll be there in about ten minutes", he said. While I waited, I went to the bedroom to put on some clean underwear. I sniffed. The noxious smell seemed to be stronger in the bedroom. I sniffed my clothes. Whatever it was that Lundel used, he had doused my clothes with it. I went back into the living room and smelled my couch. He had done the same thing there. All the soft furnishings and clothing had been doused with nasty smelling liquid. Eyes watering, I picked up Rex and my keys, locked my door behind me, and moved Rex into my car. There is no point in making him sick by exposing him to the smell. I waited in the parking lot for Tank, enjoying breathing in the fresh air.

A few minutes later, Tank arrived in a Rangeman vehicle. As we passed Mr. Wolenski in the lobby, I could hear him call out to me "That's the way to do it, chicky! Two men in one day! If you ever want a third, let me know! What I lose in years I gain in experience."

I smiled. "I'll keep that in mind, Mr. Wolenski. If I need another man, you will be the first to know."

Tank and I climbed the stairs to the second floor. "As I already told you, I have already cleared the apartment, opened the windows and opened the envelope that had been left on the table. I wore gloves opening the envelope, however, so I don't think I disturbed any evidence unduly." I unlocked the door. Tank motioned me aside and walked into the apartment, stopping in the entry to take the pulse of the place. After a minute he continued inside, rechecking all the closets, under the bed, and behind the shower curtain.

"Let's see this note", he said, taking gloves out of a pouch on his utility belt. He read the note. His face took on that same inscrutable look that Ranger's takes on when he is unhappy about something.

"We need to call the police on this. Your building super will want to have the police involved as well in case the smell does not leave and professional cleaners are needed."

"Damn. I was hoping to avoid the police." When Tank looked at me questioningly, I explained, "I don't want to see Morelli." That was all I needed to say. Tank witnessed the vicious argument between Morelli and me after I caught Brodie the first time. I thought longingly of the remaining brownies and whipped cream in the fridge.

"Come on, Steph. We don't have to wait in the fumes for the police. I'm not even sure it is healthy for us to wait here. We can wait in the hall." Maybe that is why my stomach felt all squishy. I thought it was because someone had broken into my apartment – again. I wasn't sure if I was feeling victimized or angry. Maybe both. Either way I did not feel good.

Tank put his arm around my shoulders and guided me out to the hall. The fumes were much better there. He called the vandalism and breaking and entering in to dispatch while I prepared a text for Ranger. It took me a few drafts to get it right, but after writing and deleting many times, I settled on _"You win. You have Rex and me as houseguests for a few days. Lundel, the Jay Technologies reject, vandalized my apartment, spreading a noxious smell throughout the place. We cannot safely live here until the smell is cleaned up. Sorry for the inconvenience."_

About a minute after I sent the text I received the following response, _"my place is your place. Are you okay?"_

"_Yes. Tank is with me"_, I responded.

"_Good. See you at lunch."_

I excused myself from Tank and descended into the bowels of the building to find Dillon, my building superintendent. I hate the basement. Although the dryers in the laundry room emit a comforting smell of fabric softener, the lack of windows or fresh air feels claustrophobic to me. I try to avoid the basement at all costs, only going down to ask Dillon to clean up my apartment after someone vandalized, shot someone, or otherwise harmed the place. Unfortunately, this means I come down to the basement quite a lot.

"Stephanie! Nice to see you! I am sorry I have not yet been able to get out the blood stains from your carpet. I have tried three different rug shampoos, but the stain is still there. I plan on picking up a different kind of shampoo later this afternoon and will try again tomorrow."

"That's great, thanks, Dillon. I have another problem now, though."

"Oh, oh."

"Someone has released a stink bomb in my place. It now reeks. I don't know how to clean it up and, in fact, it may need professional cleaners to do the job."

"Let's go upstairs to see if I can clean it up." He slipped on his shoes, grabbed his keys, and locked his apartment door. He followed me over to the elevator, saying "hi" to Mrs. Kimmel as she passed us on the way to the laundry room with her arms full of laundry basket and soap. She is a more daring person than me. I usually take my dirty laundry home and use my mother's washer and dryer. And if I time it right, either my mother or grandmother will do it for me.

Walking down the hall to see Tank standing guard at parade rest, I asked him how long dispatch said they would be in sending out a squad car. "They didn't say. They just said they would get someone here as soon as possible." I left Tank standing guard and let Dillon into my apartment. He whistled as soon as the door was opened and the smell wafted out.

"Rather smells like rotten eggs, doesn't it?" commented Dillon.

"Yeah, with a mixture of week-old garbage that has been left in the sun and a hint of stinky cheese", I said. "Also, he seems to have spread the stink over every piece of fabric in the place, including my soft furnishings. I will have to take down everything and wash it – curtains, bedding, clothes, everything. I don't know if he also spread the stink on the carpets as well."

"You may want to try a few bottles of Febreze on your couch and mattress to see if that lifts the smell at all. Either way, I think I will try to deodorize the carpets myself and, if that doesn't work, I will get the building to replace the carpets. I have some good carpet deodorizer from when Mrs. Murray lived her. Her dog had so many accidents on the carpets the apartment smelled strongly of pee when she moved into the nursing home. At least, I think it was because of the dog."

Eeww.

I went to the fridge and looked inside. I had a six pack of beer left. I took it out and handed it to Dillon. "Thanks for being so understanding once again. I think this is a twelve pack job. I will get you another six pack when I next see you. I will be staying with a friend for a few days. Call me on my cell when the apartment is deodorized?" Dillon said he would and then, happily, walked back down the stairs to his apartment with his beer tucked under his arm.

I went back to the fridge and looked longingly at the brownies and whipped cream. However, I could not stomach eating it in the smell and was too embarrassed to eat the brownies in the hall in front of Tank. I walked back out into the hall, brownie-free, to see Morelli barreling down on me with a hard, show-no-emotion cop look on his face.

"What happened this time?" he said, anger lacing his voice. His face turned red as he realized I was wearing Ranger's clothes. As he continued to look at me, his face grew even redder. Apparently he had noticed my lack of underwear. Tank moved to stand directly behind and to the side of me, hand on his gun. Full protection detail.

"It isn't much", I said, bristling a bit at his inference that stuff always happens to me. After all, it had been three whole weeks since I had needed police assistance. "We just needed a police report in case Dillon cannot clean the apartment himself and needs to replace the carpets. They smell bad. It is a stink bomb of proportions that even Connie would be proud." When Connie went to school, she was the master at making stink bombs. Even though I went through school a couple of years after her, she was still well known for both the intensity of smell as well as the length of hang time. Connie was known as the go-to person if you wanted to get out of a test.

"I thought I could detect an odour as I walked down the hall."

"You can smell it? I must be going nose blind. My poor neighbours."

"That is all right. Most of your neighbours are seniors and their noses don't work as well as they used to. Do you have any idea who vandalized the place?"

"Yes. When he entered the apartment he left a note. I left the note on the table so you could see it."

Morelli took out latex gloves, pulled up the neckline of his t-shirt so that it covered his nose and entered the apartment. He walked out gagging, eyes watering, a few minutes later with the note. "Who is Jay Technologies?"

"They are a company Steph was researching for me", said Tank. "They are an existing client we have done a lot of work for in the past. They were looking to hire four people and wanted background checks done. Steph researched all four and gave the green light to all except one. This person seems to have targeted Steph in retaliation. We had a phone call into the office yesterday, and now this message. Mr. Wolenski in the lobby apparently talked to the man."

"This is just another example of your job putting you in danger, Cupcake. Pack your bags. You can move into my place while your apartment is cleaned."

"Thanks, but I have already arranged to stay with Ranger."

Morelli's face turned red and steam spewed out from his ears again. "Why did I have to fall in love with an accident-prone, danger magnet? Why could I not have fallen in love with a nice, safe librarian or something?" he muttered to himself.

"Because a nice, safe librarian would not put up with your dangerous, time-sucking 24/7 job. She wouldn't put up with the missed dinners, the cancelled dates, or the postponed vacations, and she sure as hell wouldn't put up with your attitude", I responded in an increasingly loud voice. My heart started to pound, my face went red and I started to shake.

Tank put his hand on my shoulder and broke into the argument. "Are you finished with the apartment? Can we gather all the clothing, curtains and linens now so they can be washed?"

"Yes. I just have a report for Steph to sign, I want to talk with Mr. Wolenski in the lobby, and then I am otherwise done here." I signed the incident report, then Tank and I went into the apartment. We took down all the curtains, gathered up all the towels, and threw all my clothes into garbage bags. Locking up after ourselves, we took the bags down to my car.

"Shit!" I said. I put the bags on the ground beside the car and walked around it surveying the damage. All four of my tires had been slashed. Tank scanned the area while I got out my phone and hit speed dial.

"Joe, remember how you said to call you if anything else happened? Well, I am. My tires were slashed."

Morelli sighed. "I was hoping you were calling to tell me you had a change of heart and wanted to talk rather than letting all my calls go to voice mail."

"I am not ready to have that conversation with you. How do you want to handle the tire slashing?"

He sighed again. "I am turning around now and am on my way back to your place." We hung up.

"I am sorry, Tank. I know you had other things you wanted to get done today rather than just babysitting me. I do appreciate your help, however."

"Don't worry about it, Steph. You are part of the Rangeman team and we take care of our own." He took pictures of the tires. "Why don't you text Ranger while I arrange for a tow truck to come and pick up your car? Then, when we have dealt with your car, you can drop me off at Rangeman and you can use the fleet car until your car is fixed. I can take Rex into my office if you just want to get over to the laundromat."

"That sounds like a plan, thanks."

I did not want to worry Ranger needlessly in my text to him. After all, I was essentially fine, so I wrote _"Morelli came and took a statement for the apartment damage. Tank and I gathered up all the clothing etc. to take to the laundromat. Came out to find my tires slashed. Morelli is now coming back. Tank has arranged for a tow truck to pick up the car."_

I got an immediate response. _"How are you? Do you need me to come?"_

"_I'm dealing with it. Tank has been great. I have to cancel lunch. I will be at the laundromat."_

"_Ok. Which laundromat? I will bring you a sandwich from the break room."_

I told him what laundromat, then sent a text to Lula. _"Have to cancel skip chasing plans today. Had a vandal attack my apartment with a stink bomb. It's all over my clothes, bed linens, curtains, everything. Will be spending the afternoon at the laundromat."_

I got an immediate text back. _"You have the worst luck. Maybe tomorrow?"_

Morelli parked beside me as Tank and I were putting the bags of dirty laundry into the Rangeman Explorer. I pulled out Rex from the backseat of my car and stood, holding him, looking at Morelli's serious cop face. I turned and put Rex in the back seat of the Explorer. Tank powered down the windows and came around the car to join us, again standing protectively behind and to the side of me.

Morelli looked at the tires. "I don't know how you do it, Cupcake. You are consistently able to find trouble where trouble should not exist. Assuming the slasher is the same person as the stink bomb guy, I am not happy he was around while you were in the apartment building. Do you have any idea what this guy looks like?"

"No", said Tank. "Before this we just had a phone call and did not look into it any further. I will be pulling his photo to add to the file Steph already compiled on the man. I will email you a copy of the file this afternoon."

"Thank you." He went back to his car and got a blank police report. He started filling it out, pausing to say "that smell really is noxious. You will have to be careful it doesn't transfer to the inside of your car, Tank."

"This will be Steph's car until her tires are replaced." Tank's phone pinged and he looked down to read the text. "Ranger says the tires should be charged to Rangeman. I will take care of ordering them this afternoon."

I was grateful. I didn't have money for new tires and would have had to go into debt to pay for them. It was not something I wanted to do. If I had to go into debt, I wanted it to be for something much more interesting, like a new pair of shoes or a sexy new dress.

Morelli finished filling out the report and had me sign it. He left when the tow truck came, saying "try to be careful. I know it isn't in your nature, but I still haven't cut down on my Rolaid consumption since you shot Brodie. I can't take much more of this." He turned to Tank and said "take care of her", then turned around and left.

And see, that is part of the problem with Morelli. He thinks I always get into trouble, and I can never take care of myself. And that isn't exactly true. Okay, it is partly true, but not completely. But it is unfair for him not to recognize that I get out of a lot of these situations by myself. It is unfair of him to always blame it on me. And it is definitely unfair to always relate these situations to how he is feeling rather than acknowledging how I feel.

Tank and I drove to Rangeman with our heads hanging out the windows. With my hair loose I felt like a basset hound with its ears flapping in the breeze. I dropped off Tank and Rex and drove to the laundromat. I was lucky. There was no one using any of the eight machines. Carting in all the clothing, sheets, towels, curtains and pillows, I put one-and-a-half times the recommended amount of liquid laundry detergent in each of the eight machines and started running water while I sorted my clothes into eight piles – towels, curtains, sheets, delicates, one whites, two darks and one colours. I went to the machine on the wall and, putting in two twenty dollar bills, had enough quarters to run the washers.

I settled down to wait, opening up an old magazine left on one of the folding tables. I turned to the horoscopes first. Everybody knows you read the horoscopes first. Having said that, I am not sure if I actually believe in horoscopes. After all, if there were one-twelfth of the population all lucky in finances at the same time, for example, then our national economy would be doing much better than it is. I guess it also depends upon how literally you interpret the prediction. If the horoscope said I would come into unexpected money, would finding a penny on the sidewalk count?

In this case, the magazine was dated a month ago. My horoscope read "your month will be a real blast, but not necessarily in a good way. To stay safe you must stay aware. Be careful and watch your back." Hunh. Maybe there is something to this after all. Lula certainly seems to believe in it. Of course, what she does it get at least six different horoscopes, read them all, then pick the one she likes best. She then will talk about the horoscope as if it was gospel, until she has absorbed the predictions and made them reality in her own head. Then she will use them to guide her day. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I, on the other hand, like to check my horoscope after the day is over to see if it has come true. I think that is much more fun.

I was halfway through an article on how to tell if your man is cheating on you when Ranger walked into the laundromat with a plastic grocery bag in his hands. He grabbed a plastic chair, carried it over to sit down beside me and leaned over to give me a friendly kiss. "That stink liquid is pretty nasty", he said.

"Do I smell of it?" I asked, sniffing my arm. "I am nose blind. I can't smell it anymore."

"This whole laundromat smells of it, but from what Tank said this is nothing compared with how your apartment smells."

"Yeah, it's pretty nasty." I rested my head upon his shoulder as he put his arm around me. He kissed me on the top of my head.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"Off-balanced, but otherwise okay. I think I would have been able to take it in stride if I hadn't shot Brodie. This harassment feels a little like déjà vu. And I'm not happy with how it ended the first time."

"Yes, but this time, so far, it is a low-level threat. Again, it could be someone just blowing off steam. It will be important for you to stay aware of what is going on around you, but it is also important to keep it in perspective. At this point, we don't know he is another Brodie."

I listened carefully to what he had to say, but was still panicking. I did not want to have to shoot anyone else.

"Are you hungry? I brought lunch." He opened the bag and took out a diet coke for me, two bottles of water, a couple of different types of sandwiches, two containers of fruit salad, containers of baby carrots and dip and finally, with Ranger watching my face, he pulled out a chocolate bar. I could feel my spirits rising just looking at the candy and I grinned. Ranger smiled at me, a full-on, 100 watt smile. "You'll earn it working out later this afternoon. But I thought you could use a lift before then."

"You make me glad I didn't do what I wanted to do after my apartment was bombed."

"What was that?"

"Eat the remaining chocolate brownies and whipped cream."

"You didn't? Good for you."

"Yeah, well, I have to be honest. I might have if my apartment hadn't smelled so bad, or if Tank hadn't been there." I reached for the chocolate and smelled the bar. I closed my eyes in bliss at the sweet chocolaty smell. "Oh, yeah. My day is getting better already."

"Glad I could help." We divided out the food and opened our sandwiches. And see, there is another difference between Ranger and myself. When he eats a picnic lunch like that, he eats all of one thing, moves on to the next, then the next, until the meal is eaten completely, one food item at a time. He is focused about his eating. Me, I do it a little differently. I open it all up at once, and eat some of one thing, then another, then some more of the first thing again, then the third, and basically bounce around until all the food is gone. I simply get too bored to focus on just one thing at one time. But that is true about Ranger and me in general. He is so focused, and I am so not.

The washers finished and I sniffed the clothing. "I can't smell anything anymore. Is this better?" I asked.

Ranger came over and sniffed the clothing. "By the sounds of what Tank said and the smell of this laundromat, I would say the fabrics smell better but they do not smell clean yet. Before you put them on again, I will go to the grocery store across the street for you and purchase some scent boosters for the wash. Do you need anything else?"

"Maybe some more laundry detergent and fabric softener sheets with scent? And some clean garbage bags to put the clothes in after, in case the stink transferred to the bags I brought the clothes in. And some more quarters. Thanks for going for me."

"No problem." As he dropped the lunch garbage in the bin on his way out, he passed a couple of women on their way in to the laundromat with their clothes. He nodded his head to them as they took one step into the room, gagged, covered their noses, and ran back out again. I felt kind of bad, but it didn't matter anyway. All the machines were taken with my clothing.

I gathered up the black garbage bags and put them in the garbage. A man came in to the laundromat and walked over to the table where I had been sitting and sat down. I then turned and put a regular amount of laundry detergent in all the machines except the last two – I had run out of detergent and was glad Ranger was getting me more. "I am sorry for the stink. Someone vandalized my apartment today and spread a nasty liquid all over all the fabrics. I have to wash all my clothes, my curtains, everything."

"That must have been terrible. Do you have any idea who did it?" he asked.

I stood talking to him, taking a sip of my coke. "I am not exactly sure, but I have my suspicions." I drank some more of my coke and looked longingly at my chocolate bar. Deciding I would eat it later, when Ranger came back again, I finished off my coke and put the tin in the recycling container.

"Why would he do such a thing?"

"We don't know for sure it is a he. But I think it is because I made a recommendation to a company and the vandal didn't like my recommendation." I was starting to feel a bit dreamy, detached, like I had consumed too much alcohol. I must be more tired than I realized, I thought, and I hoped the caffeine in the coke would wake me up soon.

I tried to open the bottle of water but my hands seemed to not be working properly. The man leaned over and opened the bottle for me. "Fanks", I said, lifting the bottle of water to drink. I seemed to be uncoordinated, unable to get the bottle to my mouth. I hit my face twice before I was able to take a drink, giggling uncontrollably after each miss. A part of me was still lucid and could not understand what was happening to me. I do not drink alcohol to excess very often, but I have done so enough to know what being drunk feels like. I definitely felt drunk, yet I had not had anything alcoholic to drink.

I stood up, deciding it would be a good idea to go to the bathroom to splash some water on my face. I must had stood up too quickly. When I did so the room spun and I almost toppled over. "Whoopsy-daisy!" I sang out. I lurched my way back to the bathroom and fell through the door as I opened it. I splashed some water on my face, soaking my shirt. There were no towels, so I wiped my face off with the sleeve of my hoody and walked back to the man sitting at the table.

"S'what name?" I asked him.

"My name is Nigel".

"S'nice meetch ya." I sat down again at the table and laid my head down.

"You don't look too good. Can I take you home? You look like you need a nap."

I raised my head and looked at him. "S'all right. Need t'look laundry." I smiled at him in a wobbly way as my vision went blurry.

"I think you should go home."

"I cannot. My apart…apart…apartment schmells too dad", trying to speak slowly and carefully.

"Then I will take you to my home. You obviously aren't well and you need some sleep."

"No. Can schleep here." I closed my eyes and fell into blackness.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight **

I woke up in the hospital with a pounding headache and the need to throw up. Ranger was sitting beside me and Morelli was standing looking out the door of the cubicle. Ranger looked tortured. I could not tell how Morelli looked. His back was to me.

"Welcome back", Ranger said. There was a tightness around his eyes that said "not happy". Morelli turned around and quickly walked over to my side. His face was hard and his eyes were his assessing cop eyes. "How do you feel?"

"Like I have the hangover from hell. Where am I?"

"In the hospital. You have been here for the last four hours. Can you remember what happened?" asked Morelli.

"No, not really."

"Why don't you tell us what you do remember, including all the shadowy and fuzzy parts, and we will tell you what we know afterwards?" suggested Ranger.

"I filled the washers with more detergent in all except the last two, as I ran out of soap. I was waiting until you came back with the scent booster before I put the washers on. A man came into the laundromat and we talked for a few minutes. I started to feel bad, like I was drunk. I thought I must be more tired than I realized, and all my sleepless nights were catching up to me. Then things start getting really fuzzy."

"Did you recognize the man?" asked Morelli.

"No."

"Okay, tell me about the fuzzy things. Did he tell you his name?" asked Morelli.

I thought for a minute. "I'm not sure. Maybe?"

"Did he carry in laundry of his own?"

"No. I assumed he left it in his car."

"When he came in, did he join you at the table?" asked Ranger.

"No, I had my back to him and was putting laundry detergent into the machines. I joined him at the table a few minutes later."

"Did you finish drinking your coke after he came in?" asked Ranger.

"Yes. I kept hoping the caffeine would make me feel better."

"Did it taste weird?" asked Morelli.

"No, I didn't notice anything." I knew the questions were leading to something but my head hurt too much to put it together. Morelli pulled out his phone and made a call. He asked for my coke can to be retrieved from the garbage.

"Who opened the coke can?" asked Morelli.

"I did. But now that you mention it, I could not open my water bottle. I seemed to have lost all my coordination and could not do so. The man who was there opened the water bottle for me." I closed my eyes and focused on trying not to throw up. When the wave of nausea passed, I opened my eyes and said "now can you tell me what is going on?"

"You were drugged with GHB, more often known for its use as a date rape drug", said Ranger. "It was likely put in your coke by the man who came in after I left. He had not counted on me coming back. I was only gone for about twenty minutes. When I finished your shopping, I came back to the laundromat and saw you being half carried and half dragged to the man's car. I called out your name and the man dropped you on the ground. I ran over to you to make sure you were all right and the man jumped in his car and drove away. I was able to give the license plate to Morelli, but I was too worried about you to follow him. I called an ambulance and Morelli, and Ella came over to finish doing your laundry." His eyes looked concerned as they took in my white face. "We should let a nurse know you are awake." He pressed the call button.

"If it was a date rape drug, was I raped?"

"No, you weren't. We checked for that when you came in", said the nurse coming into the room. She looked at Morelli, then at Ranger, and licked her lips. I could understand her reaction. Ranger and Morelli both attract female attention wherever they go. I am not sure if either of them are aware of it.

She came over and checked the machine. "Your heart rate is rising nicely, which is good. Your heart rate was really low when you came in. How do you feel?"

"Like I have the hangover from hell."

"Which means?"

"I want to throw up, and my head hurts. My chest feels kind of tight, and I am tired and dizzy."

"Those are all pretty normal side effects from GHB. I will call the doctor and get her to come and look at you." She printed off the report from the heart monitor, put it in my file, and left the room.

"Did you get a copy of the security tape?" I asked.

"Yes. I haven't seen it yet myself, but maybe tomorrow when you are feeling better you can look at it to see if it shakes any more memories loose", said Morelli.

"I should have clued in to what was going on, shouldn't I have? Drugging someone has got to be the oldest trick in the book and I fell for it."

Morelli looked at me in frustration. "It's your life. I would like to say you should not have known, that you should not have even thought of it. And that is what I would say to any normal person. But with you, you are such a disaster magnet you should be on your guard at all times. You could go to church with a congregation of saints and still need to be on your guard. It's just you."

Ranger glared at Morelli. "Don't beat yourself up about it", he said, turning back to me. "It happened. It's not your fault. It was the person who drugged you. Getting caught in "could haves" and "should haves" is not a productive use of your time. Let's move on."

The doctor came into the room with my chart in hand. "Hi. I'm Dr. Jettson. How are you feeling?" I went over everything I had told the nurse. "Those are all pretty standard side effects from taking GHB. The good news is you were admitted quickly. We were able to set up an IV with fluids, you did not have to be intubated, and your heart rate is rising back to normal levels. You are currently on oxygen but your oxygenation levels are good now so we can take the nasal cannula off. I do want the monitor left on for a while, though."

"How long do I have to be here?"

"I can see that you are pretty tired, and I would like to keep you at least until your heart rate returns to normal. I would also like to keep you on fluids a little longer to help flush the drug out of your system. I will check on you in a couple of hours to see how you feel and we will decide then whether you will be staying overnight. In the meantime, I will prescribe some pain relievers for your headache. Hopefully this will allow you to sleep a bit."

"Thank you." She left and the nurse took off the cannula. She brought me some ibuprofen and a glass of juice. I took the medication and struggled to hold it down. Ranger passed me a bowl. I think he must have seen me turn green.

"What happens now?" I asked.

"Now you sleep. I will wait here beside you and make sure Lundel does not come back", said Ranger. "And it means we cannot do training today."

"Oh, and I was so looking forward to it."

"Smart-ass", Ranger said with a smile.

"What about you, Joe? What are you going to do now?"

"I would like to stay, but I have to go back to work and follow up on Lundel as well as work on a murder I got a couple of days ago. I need to get on Lundel's trail before it grows cold." He came over to me and lightly kissed me on the lips. "Have a good sleep and I will see you later." Turning to Ranger, he said "can you keep me informed about what is happening here?" Ranger nodded his head in agreement.

I was so tired it felt like my eyes were starting to cross, and the dizziness did not help my nausea at all. "Close your eyes, Babe. Don't fight it. Just go to sleep. I will be here when you wake up." He reached over and picked up my hand, rubbing soothing circles on the back. "Just sleep, Babe." He lifted my hand and kissed my knuckles. I was asleep before he laid my hand back on the bed.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine **

When I woke next, Ranger was still sitting on the chair beside me, texting on his phone. He had a file open on the rolling table beside him. I must have made a sound; Ranger looked up, his lips curling up into one of his half-smiles. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"A bit better. I don't feel nearly so nauseous, I am not dizzy, and although I still have a headache, it isn't as bad as it was earlier. What time is it?"

"It is eight o'clock."

"Have you eaten?"

"Not yet. I can get something later. Are you hungry?"

"No. My stomach is still a little too unsettled to really want food. I don't remember eating my chocolate bar. I was saving it to share with you", I said despondently. A tear slipped down my cheek.

"I can buy you another chocolate bar, Babe." He pressed the button for the nurse to come back.

"But you never buy me chocolate bars."

He smiled. "I will make an exception this time. It's not your fault you were unable to eat it."

"According to Morelli, it was."

"Morelli is an idiot and he is wrong. You did not drug yourself. You felt you were in a safe place and acted accordingly. You made a mistake, but that does not mean it was your fault. I thought you were in a safe place as well, and I left you there to do the shopping. I was also wrong, but that does not mean it is my fault either. It is solely the fault of Lundel."

"Do we know for sure that is who was there?"

"Yes. We were lucky in that the tape from the laundromat was in good condition and did not have to be cleaned up very much. In it, we can see him with his hand over your coke. There are a couple of good face shots as well. Morelli wants to show you the tape tomorrow. They found the coke can and have tested it, and have found GHB in it. Also, I got a pretty good look at him as he brought you outside, and after seeing the file you and Tank put together, I recognized the man as being Lundel. In the meantime, I think the doctor will likely release you. The nurse has been checking your vital signs while you were sleeping and she seems pretty happy with the readings. Rex is in my apartment. You're still coming to my place, right?"

"If you don't mind."

"I would prefer it. I need to know you are all right. It's just that I know Joe wants you at his place as well. Now, I have not told your family you are in the hospital but, knowing how fast Burg gossip travels, I would assume that is why your phone keeps pinging. For the sake of family harmony, you may want to respond to them tonight."

Oh, great.

The nurse came in. "How do you feel?" she asked as she took my vitals again.

"Better than I did. Still not one hundred percent, but less nauseous and my headache is more manageable. I'm not as dizzy and the tightness in my chest has disappeared completely.

"Good", she replied, "I know the doctor wants to talk to you again and has been waiting for you to wake up. I will get her now, before she goes off shift."

Morelli came into the room shortly after the nurse left. "How are you feeling?"

"Better. Still not back to normal, but definitely better than I was. How has your day gone?"

"Frustratingly. We went to Lundel's apartment but he was not there. I will try again this evening. Ranger, please thank Tank for the file he sent over. He has done a lot of good background research and has made my job much easier."

"I will let Tank know, but it was Steph who did the research."

"Really? Good work." He looked at me with surprise. He is so used to thinking of me as a bumbling idiot – and most of the time I am – he is always surprised when I do something right.

The doctor came in with my chart in hand. "Your vitals are good, your heart is functioning normally again, your blood pressure has stabilized, and your oxygenation levels are back where they are supposed to be. You are good to go. Take it easy over the next 24 hours, drink lots of non-alcoholic fluids to continue to flush the drug out from your system, and take ibuprofen or acetaminophen for your headache. You should feel perfectly back to normal in 24 hours.

"Thank you for your help."

Ranger went to get a wheelchair for me, despite my protestations that I could walk. I didn't really mind. I still felt unsteady and tired. While Ranger was getting the wheelchair Morelli sat down in the chair Ranger had vacated.

"Now, about all those telephone messages I left. Scaring me half to death won't get you out of having a conversation with me."

"I know. And I am willing to have that conversation with you, just not yet. I have to get my head screwed on straight before I can even consider what is happening with us."

"For the record, I am very sorry for everything I said. I was out of line."

"You were only out of line if you didn't mean it, and that is the problem. I think you did mean it. You honestly want me to quit my job and become a stay-at-home mom. That works for some people, but I am not strong enough as a person to be able to stay at home full time. I would go insane. And in truth, I'm not sure if I even want kids. My family wants me to have kids, but they seem like a lot of work for little personal gain. Again, it is for some people but I am not sure if it is for me. I have a crazy life right now, but it is my crazy life and in many ways I like it. And then there is the topic of your job. I don't like your job any better than you like mine, yet you are good at it and are unwilling to change as well. But do I want to bring up kids with someone who is in such a dangerous job? There is a lot to think about and I haven't finished thinking through all those things yet. I need to fall back and regroup."

"All I know is I love you and miss you."

"I love you in many ways as well, and I definitely miss you. But I don't know if that is enough. No matter what happens, you will remain one of my closest friends."

"Are you together with Ranger now?"

"No, Ranger is also one of my closest friends. He's been helping me with dealing with shooting Brodie, both professionally as well as psychologically. I've been a mess, and this stuff with you hasn't helped. But if you are asking me whether we have hooked up, no we haven't. I need to get stabilized myself and sort through my feelings before I figure out where I want to go." And that is mostly true. But Morelli and I had had a somewhat open relationship. We hadn't really been committed to each other. Hell, I could barely even tell him I loved him. Hooking up with other people was sort of a gray area for us. As far as I know, I delved into that gray area more than Morelli did, and I delved into it with Ranger the night before I shot Brodie. It made me feel guilty until Morelli yelled at me and broke up with me in front of everyone.

"So I didn't blow my chances completely then?"

"Let's just say you made me start to think long term when I was only thinking short term. That is probably a good thing, but it will take me some time to sort out where I want to go. I have been coasting for so long that thinking about what I truly want is new to me."

Ranger walked in pushing a wheelchair. He looked at the two of us and a curtain fell down across his face, hiding his emotions. "Tank is currently bringing up the car and I have signed all the paperwork. Are you ready to leave?"

"Very much so. I just want to go home and have a hot shower and go to bed."

Morelli's face took on an inscrutable look. "Ranger's place is not home."

"It is for the time being", I said. Ranger looked happier but Morelli's face grew dark.

"I don't like it. I don't trust him", Morelli said.

"But that's the thing. You relinquished any say about this three weeks ago. And you don't have to trust him. I do and that is all that matters."

Ranger came over to my side and helped me off the bed, keeping hold of my arm as I walked over to the wheelchair. I sat down, Morelli handed me my purse, and the three of us – all unhappy for our own reasons – walked out of the hospital to meet Tank at the doors.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten **

Ranger and I went up to his apartment. "Are you hungry at all? Ella defrosted some of her chicken noodle soup for dinner and she said she will make us grilled cheese to go with it when we call her."

"Ella's chicken noodle soup is definitely tempting, although I don't think my stomach is up to a grilled cheese sandwich." Ella's soup is amazing. Not that long ago I was using Ranger's house as a safe house and got strep throat. Ella made me some of her famous soup and it was like a warm hug in a bowl. Definitely homemade, it had chunks of chicken, fat egg noodles, peas, carrots and leeks. There was nothing I could think of that I would like better to eat. I walked into Ranger's bedroom and smelled the smell of fabric softener and smell booster. I peeked in the closet to see several garbage bags of clean laundry, all of it smelling good. I looked at the bags, dejected. I did not know which of the eight bags of laundry held my sweatpants and oversized sweatshirt. It all suddenly seemed overwhelming to me, and my shoulders went down and stared at my shoe as I fought tears. I turned around to head into the bathroom for a shower and a good cry, literally running into Ranger on the way. He steadied me on my feet then, looking at my face, wrapped his arms around me.

"That was nice of Ella to do my laundry for me", I said, choking back tears.

"Ella is a nice lady."

"I will have to sort through it tomorrow to pull out things for me to wear. I cannot find anything right now and I don't have the patience to go through it tonight."

"Why don't you wear some of my sweats and a t-shirt? I know they are too big on you, but they seem to work when you have worn them before, and if you want to have a shower I will find some underwear for you to wear when you get out." And strangely, the idea of Ranger going through my clothes looking for my underwear wasn't as uncomfortable as it probably should have been. That was something to think about later, when my head didn't hurt so much.

"Thanks. But no thongs." Because in my mind, when you are trying to get comfortable you don't want to be wearing butt floss.

I headed into the bathroom and turned on the water, standing under it until I had turned lobster red and wrinkly, and had cried myself out. Wrapping myself up in a towel, I came out of the shower to find Ranger coming into the bathroom carrying a pair of underwear, one of his t-shirts, a pair of his sweatpants, and one of his hoodies. He put the clothes down, looked at me and said "are you all right?"

"Fine. Why?"

"Your eyes are all red."

"I must had got soap in them."

He came over, gave me a hug and kissed the top of my head. "Liar", he said with a smile. "Ella brought up dinner while you were in the shower. It is warming on the stove. Should I dish it up while you get dressed?"

* * *

"I am sorry about everything that happened. I know you wanted to work on your new client this afternoon, and waiting in the hospital waylaid that."

"Don't worry about it. I needed to be with you. You scared the hell out of me when I couldn't rouse you at the laundromat and your pulse rate and breathing were so slow. Besides, Tank brought some work for me to do. I split the time while you were sleeping on working on our new client and reviewing the information we have on Lundel. Morelli also got me the clip from the cameras of Lundel spiking your drink."

We sat down on the couch, Ranger in the corner and me leaning against his side, tucked under his arm with his hand resting on my waist in a one-armed hug. I picked up my phone and sighed.

"They only badger you to quit because they care, Babe. You might as well get it over with. They will only worry more if you don't call." He turned on the ball game and turned the volume down low so I could hear.

"I know." I sighed again and then, gritting my teeth, phoned my mother.

"You finally called back! I thought you were dead! Frank! Ma! Stephanie's on the line."

"No, Mom. I'm not dead. I was just sleeping and could not call you back. Besides, they don't like it when you use your cell phone in the hospital. It can interfere with all the monitors they have there."

"Does this mean you are out of the hospital? Why are you out of the hospital? You didn't get yourself released early, did you? I spoke with Tina's mother, who was told by Tina who was told by Rosie who was told by Karyn that you almost died. What did Joe have to say about you getting yourself released early?"

"I didn't get myself released early, Mom."

"But you almost died."

"I didn't almost die. My drink was spiked with GHB, a drug which gives you the feeling of a really nasty hangover. It also makes you really tired. I slept most of the time I was at the hospital and after I finish talking to you I am going to bed again."

"Tina said the drug you were given is a date rape drug."

"Yes, it is often used as a date rape drug. I was not raped though."

"Thank God." In my mind's eye, I could see my mother crossing herself. I heard my grandmother and father come into the room in the background followed by muffled conversation. "I am putting you on speakerphone. Your father and grandmother are here and want to talk to you." I heard her switch the phone to speakerphone, followed by my mother shouting "your grandmother and father are here in the kitchen with me."

"Hello, Stephanie. How are you feeling? I heard you almost died", said my grandmother. My Grandma Mazur moved into my parents' house when my grandfather drove his Buick to the big car show in the sky. My grandmother is a teenager trapped in a senior's body. In outlook and attitude she is more hip than me, and I think she finds living with my staid mother and father to be difficult. On my parents' side, I think constantly having to live with my grandmother has given my mother more gray hairs than my sister, Valerie, and I put together. My dad deals with it by just trying not to be in the house very often. It's either that or kill my grandmother in her sleep.

"I didn't almost die, Grandma. I didn't even come close to dying. I was just drugged and it took some time for the drugs to work their way through my body. I waited at the hospital while they did."

"What did it feel like?" asked my grandmother.

"It felt like the worst hangover you could ever imagine."

"I wish I could have felt what it was like." I could hear my mother, scandalized, say "Ma!" in the background. "So you were throwing up?"

"No, I didn't throw up."

"I am getting my hair done tomorrow at the beauty parlour and I need a better story than that. Do you mind if I tell everyone you almost died and you were puking your guts out all over the emergency room floor? That is a much better story", said Grandma.

"Yes, I mind! Do not say that, Grandma."

"I heard that bastard gave you a date rape drug. Were you raped?" asked my father. You could tell he felt uncomfortable asking, but he needed to know. It is every father's nightmare, having their daughters raped.

"No, I wasn't raped. I was just drugged, carried out to a car, and dropped on the ground." I could hear my father let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Damn. You weren't raped. That won't make a very good story", said my grandmother. I could hear my mother whisper "Ma!" in horror, and could mentally see her crossing herself again. Then Grandma brightened as she thought about what I had said. "But you could have been raped. That was probably why he was kidnapping you. That's what I will tell everyone. That you were almost raped."

"No, Grandma! Do not tell everyone I was almost raped. I was not almost raped. Do not make this into something it isn't."

"Well, if you weren't almost raped, why would someone be drugging you with a date rape drug and then kidnapping you?" asked my grandmother.

"I don't know. I don't have an answer to that."

"I know", said my mother. "It's your job! You need to change jobs. You need to settle down with Joe and let him support you. It is time for you to have children. You are not getting any younger you know. Your sister already has four, and you have none. Tell her, Frank. Tell her she needs to settle down."

"How is your car running? You can't be too careful with those foreign cars. Are you changing the oil regularly?" asked my father.

"Frank!" said my mother. "She needs to be more like Valerie. She needs to settle down and have children."

"This isn't a contest", I said. "Valerie has always been a better daughter to you, Mom. Just accept it." I cuddled deeper in Ranger's side. He rubbed his thumb against my side in comfort.

"No, not a better daughter. But she certainly seems happier. She is married to a lawyer and has those four lovely daughters. She has everything she needs to be happy. Whereas you, you are divorced. You have no children. You have just broken up with your long-term boyfriend and you have a dangerous job. You have been shot more than once, you regularly get bumps and bruises catching skips and now someone drugs you and tries to rape you. I can't take it anymore."

I broke in to her tirade. "Mom. He did not want to rape me."

"I agree with your grandmother. If he did not want to rape you then why did he drug you with a date rape drug? Why did he try to kidnap you?"

"I don't know, but I suspect it had something to do with the fact that using a date rape drug means I don't remember much. Everything is all foggy."

"Then he probably did want to rape you. You just don't remember."

"Mom! He did not want to rape me!"

"Then why did he want to kidnap you?"

"I don't know. He is just a very angry man who isn't getting what he wants because of me and he decided to take it out on me."

"What does he want?"

"He wants to get hired by a certain company but I told the company he was dangerous and should not be hired. He is mad about that. He vandalized my apartment, slashed the tires on my car, and now spiked my drink. He's very angry."

"He slashed the tires on your car? That's not right!" said my father, outraged.

I could hear the sound of my mother whispering "Frank!" at my father. "What does Joe say about all this?" my mother asked me.

"He's not very happy." I didn't want to tell my mother he blamed me for it. I didn't need to give her any fodder.

"What about Ranger? He was the person who stopped your kidnapping, wasn't he?"

"Yes, apparently he was. He also is not very happy about this."

"I am thankful he was there. You should bring him for dinner someday. I would make him stuffed cabbage rolls." I made a face. I didn't like stuffed cabbage very much. I much preferred lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, roast pork and applesauce, roast chicken, roast beef, steak, veal…anything other than stuffed cabbage.

"Thank you, Mom. I will keep that in mind."

"Where are you staying if your apartment was vandalized?"

"I am at Ranger's for the time being."

"You should stay with Joe. I saw him the other day and he looked terrible. You should never have broken up with him. He was a keeper."

"We have been over this, Mom. He doesn't want me. He wants a stay-at-home mom and two point five kids. I can't be the person he wants me to be."

"And I can't understand why you don't jump at that. You wouldn't have to work again, you could be happy having children and looking after them. He has a good job and even has his own house, benefits and a pension. I was happy with that. Why can't you be happy with that?"

"I'm just not, Mom. I want more. I don't care about kids, and I like having an interesting job."

"You don't care about kids now, but you will in the future. When you are getting old and gray, you will appreciate having children then."

"I thought having children made you old and gray."

"Having you as a child does. Tell me, why did I have to find out what had happened from Tina's mother? Why could you not have called me?"

"I was unconscious, Mom. Since I wasn't in any danger, I guess Joe didn't think of calling you."

"Next time can you call me before I hear about it from one of our neighbours?"

"If I'm not unconscious or otherwise incapacitated I will try to. What you have to understand though, Mom, is that what is a big deal for you is just all in a day's work for me. Do you think Joe calls his mom every time someone shoots at him? Or tries to run him over? I know for certain he doesn't. You need to trust someone will tell you if something serious has gone wrong. Joe called you when my leg was shot, didn't he? And I called you when Lula shot my arm, didn't I? Things happen, but if they are really serious you will be one of the first to know. If they aren't as serious, we will be busy with dealing with the issue and will have to get back to you later."

"Perhaps if you got a different job. I heard the personal products plant is hiring on the line. You could do that. It is a good job. It comes with benefits and everything."

"I have two good jobs. And Ranger's job comes with benefits as well."

"But you are out, chasing criminals, getting into trouble. Joe says you aren't even very good at it."

I stiffened, and Ranger kissed the top of my head. "That may be what he says, but I still have a ninety percent capture rate. It just takes me a little more time to catch the skips than it should. I'm doing okay as a bounty hunter. Besides, you should be happy. In Ranger's job I sit at a desk."

"Then why don't you work full time for Ranger? You would be safe working in his office building."

"I could, but the work is boring. Working part time for Vinnie and part time for Ranger is the perfect mix for me. Not too boring, but money coming in on a regular basis. With Ranger giving me flex hours I can work around Vinnie's schedule for catching skips." I yawned.

"I guess working part time in an office is better than all skip chasing. I will count my chickens where I can find them. I should let you go to get some sleep. You have had a busy day."

"Thanks, Mom. I am tired. I think I still am recovering and just need a good sleep. Grandma, do _not_ make up stories about what happened to me. People are still treating me like a murderer from the last stories you told at the beauty salon."

"People get excited so easily. All I told them was that you had killed three people now."

"That's it?"

"Well, I may have said they need to treat me nicely or else", and she made the sound of a gun going off. I heard my mother yell "Ma!" at her and could see her crossing herself again.

"I will go to church and pray for you tomorrow", said my mother. "Good night and take care of yourself."

"I will, Mom. You, too. Good night, everybody."

I hung up the phone, put it on the coffee table, and cuddled into Ranger's side again.

"What had you so upset on the phone?" asked Ranger.

"Morelli told my parents I am not very good as a bounty hunter. I admit, I am not the best at it, but I could be worse. I used to be worse. I bumble around, but I usually eventually get them."

"Don't put yourself down. You have good instincts. You have luck and you have tenacity. Could you be better? Yes. Could you be worse? Hell, yeah. Are you better than you were five years ago? Yes. One year ago? Yes again. You do a good job. And as you said, you have a high capture rate. If Vinnie wasn't happy with your performance, he wouldn't be giving any skips to you."

"Thanks. But what Morelli said has given my mother fuel to add to her rant on me quitting my job. Do you know my mother spoke with Vinnie's wife to try to get Vinnie to fire me?"

"It's hard to remember sometimes, when you are in the middle of a lot of shit going down, that it is sometimes harder to sit on the sidelines and watch than it is to be in the middle of it. You have been through a lot in the last month. Between the incident with Brodie and this latest with Lundel, your house has been trashed, your car vandalized, your life threatened, your parents' house defaced, you shot someone in self-defense, and now you were drugged. It is a lot for you to handle, but because your parents care about you, it is a lot for them as well. And they can't do anything about it. You at least can train. You can do your job and put bad guys in jail. You can put one foot in front of another so you don't worry. For your parents, they don't have any of those coping mechanisms. All that is left for them to do is worry. The most they can do is badger you and try to get you on a safer path, no matter how boring that path may be. It's a tough life, being a parent."

"Do you find it tough with Julie?" Ranger had been married for about ten minutes in a previous life and Julie, his now-teenaged daughter, was the by-product of the union. Julie, his ex-wife and her new husband all live in Miami. Although Ranger does not have a close relationship with his daughter, he honours the connection and has a good rapport with his ex-wife.

"I do, at times. It is compounded by Julie living not only in a different city than me, but also in a different state. But I think with my line of business I have learned how to keep things in perspective and to not sweat the small stuff as much."

"But today you could not rise above things. There was no reason for you to worry."

"You weren't in my shoes, Babe. I thought you were dying."

I didn't have anything to say to that. I pressed my face into his arm, gave him a kiss, and smelled the comforting smell of Bulgari Green.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven **

I woke up crying and thrashing around. It was the same nightmare with an added twist. In this nightmare, I shot Brodie and Morelli yells at me. Then I start working on the line at the personal products packing plant. I am not sure what part of the dream had me in tears – the shooting, being the recipient of Morelli's anger, or working at the personal products plant.

Ranger sat up in bed and, as I woke up, he leaned against the padded headboard and pulled me up into a hug. I listened to his slow and steady heartbeat as I cuddled into him. "Shh. You are all right. You are safe." He kissed the top of my head and repeatedly smoothed my hair away from my face. "Want to tell me about it?"

Soothed by the rhythmic sound of his heart and his slow breathing, I told him all about my dream. He listened until I was finished, and said "I cannot see you working at the personal products plant and being happy. You already are bored working on the research desk, and at least there is some variety there. If you want a more boring job, you can work for me full time. The offer is always open."

"Thanks." I listened for a few minutes more, snuggling in further to the sound of his heart.

"How do you feel?"

"All right. Tired, but my headache has gone and my stomach is steady."

"Good. Let's try sleeping again."

* * *

The next morning I woke up at five thirty to the sound of Ranger's watch alarm going off. He quickly turned off the alarm and slowly started to ease himself out of my stranglehold.

"S'okay. I'm awake", I mumbled.

"I was hoping you would sleep longer, Babe. Why don't you go back to sleep? I am going to have a workout, shower, and do some work in my office up here until it is time to wake you for breakfast."

I think I was asleep again almost before he finished talking. I was definitely asleep again before he walked out the apartment door.

Over breakfast, Ranger asked me about my plans for the day. "I have a couple of existing skips to chase and Connie said she has two or three new files for me. So I am busy doing that, but to be honest I do not really want to be out of the Rangeman building today. I am probably being silly, but I just don't feel confident enough to leave. I could get Lula to drop the files off for me, but I don't want to invite her to the building. She would insist upon a tour." Ranger grimaced. Letting Lula loose on his staff would be like setting a cannon off in a flock of birds. It would upset the flock dramatically. He did not really want that to happen as well. "So I guess I will have to suck it up and leave the building. I have a body receipt to pick up from the station and I have to pick up my cheques from Connie. I also have to meet up with Morelli to look at the video feed from yesterday, and I want to sort through all the laundry Ella did for me. Finally, I want to buy a bouquet of flowers for Ella to thank her."

"Why don't I take Hal off patrol today and he can accompany you on your errands? That way you get four hours of support."

"Thanks. I would appreciate that. What does your day look like?"

"I have an open day. I will be working on the blueprints for that new client and I want to look at the expansion plans again. I will be here for lunch if you are interested and am available to train at four o'clock again. Meet me at my desk at three forty-five." He looked at his phone and scrolled through some information. "Hal is working patrol from eleven to three. Does that suit your timing?"

"That's perfect, thanks."

After Ranger left for the day I sent a text to Lula. _"I won't be chasing skips today. I spent the yesterday in the hospital. Was drugged and almost kidnapped. Ranger stopped the guy. Need a day to get my feet back on the ground. Will be in later with Hal to drop off body receipts and pick up cheques. Also will pick up files. Will be in sometime between one and three."_

I got an immediate response back. _"No problemo going out tomorrow instead. I have a new magazine to read. Take care of yourself."_

I next wrote a text to Morelli. _"Will be in sometime between eleven and three. Hal will be accompanying me. Will pick up outstanding body receipts and will look at video clip then if you are available. Does any time work better for you?"_ I got an immediate response back from Morelli. _"If you come at noon we can ditch Hal and have lunch together."_

"_I am not ditching Hal. He can either come for lunch with us or we don't have lunch at all. Or, you can come to the Rangeman building this morning and we can sit in a conference room and have a coffee._"

"_I am actually busy this afternoon. I will come to the Rangeman building this morning. Does ten work for you?"_

"_Yes. Get the guard to call me down to the lobby at ten and I will sign you in."_

I looked at the time. Nine o'clock. I had to get a move on if I would be ready in time to meet Morelli for coffee. I jumped in the shower and had a nice hot shower, put on Ranger's housecoat and felt incredibly turned on by it – it is the thought that he might have last had it against his naked skin – blasted my hair with the dryer, gunked my eyelashes up with mascara and put on a nice raspberry shade of lip gloss. Deciding I looked as good as I was going to get, I hurriedly sorted through all of my clothing that Ella had washed, dried and folded, put a selection on my shelf in Ranger's closet and the rest back into the garbage bags, and selected my confidence-inducing underwear – you know, that pair of underwear that everyone has that is incredibly comfortable but makes you feel sexy at the same time. The pair that doesn't ride up and give you a wedgie. On Lula this underwear is an animal print thong. I know, because we talked about it once while we were doing a stakeout. On me, mine are much more traditional. It is a scrap of dark purple silk and black lace with a matching bra. I took off Ranger's robe and put on the underwear followed by my yoga pants. I matched one of Ranger's t-shirts tied off at the waist with a hair elastic, and one of Ranger's too large hoodies with it. Wearing Ranger's clothing made me feel secure, and after the vandalism, drugging and attempted kidnapping yesterday, I could use all the feelings of security I could get.

I was just finishing getting dressed when I got a text from Morelli. _"Just parking now and will be at reception in a few minutes. Will meet you there?"_

"_See you in a few"_, I responded. I took the elevator down to the lobby and arrived at the same time as Morelli was signing in. I gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek, quickly stepping away when he tried to make it more amorous. We took the elevator up to the fifth floor and grabbed coffee and a muffin each. I got lemon poppyseed and Morelli got apple streusel. We then went down to the second floor and snagged a conference room.

Keeping it all business, Morelli opened his laptop and accessed the video file. As he cued it up, he watched my face for any sign of recognition. "I wish the video had audio feed as well, but it doesn't. Tell me what is happening as you see it on the screen. If you can, tell me what was said."

"I remember this part", I said as I paused it. "I was filling the washing machines with soap, glad that I had added laundry detergent at the last minute to the list of things for Ranger to purchase at the grocery store. See, you can see there that I ran out. I didn't want to start the machines until Ranger came back with the scent booster." I played the tape again. "So that is when he spiked my drink", I said as I saw his hand pass over my can of coke. In the video, my back was still turned. I came back and sat down, moving my chair a little back from the stranger. "I remember being a little annoyed, wondering why, with all the chairs in the laundromat, he had to sit in the one closest to me. He was in my personal space and I did not like it. That is why I got up and started pacing with my coke. Drinking my coke was a good thing to do with my hands in my discomfort. I think I apologized for the laundromat smelling bad. I told him that someone had vandalized my apartment and that, although I did not know who did it, I had my suspicions. That is when everything started seeming a bit dreamy and I was really tired and relaxed, like I had consumed too much alcohol. I can remember wanting to sleep and knowing I shouldn't, and that is the last thing I remember." I watched further, seeing him talk to me. I saw him open my water for me, and me missing my mouth while trying to drink it. I saw me go to the bathroom at the back and, while I was there, I saw him look in my purse at my driver's licence, my bounty hunter business cards, and my gun. He took one of the business cards and put it in his pocket. I saw him look up and quickly shove it all in my bag as I saw me come lurching out of the bathroom. Then, I saw me go to the folding table, sit down and put my head down. I guess that was when I passed out because I didn't move any more. I saw Lundel shake my shoulder hard and smile when I flopped around, boneless. I saw him haul me up and half carry, half drag me out the door, leaving my purse behind. I could not see anything that happened after leaving the doors of the laundromat.

I felt sick to my stomach. I did not know what he wanted to do with me, but it wasn't to kill me because he could have done so, with my own gun, in the laundromat. I didn't know what his plan was, or even whether he had a plan or was just making it up as he went along. Whatever he wanted, it gave me a squishy feeling in my stomach that made me wish I had not had the muffin to eat.

"I'm sorry I can't help you more."

"That's all right. I wasn't really expecting anything. I wanted to try, though, just in case. Ranger put Hal on you for protection today?"

"Not exactly for protection. I have a number of errand types of things to do today, but I did not feel confident with leaving the Rangeman building. Ranger is taking Hal off patrol today to go around with me for a few hours. He isn't exactly on protection detail but is rather there to make me feel more confident as I get my feet back under me. I just feel a little off-balanced by everything that has happened to me lately."

"That's understandable. It has been a busy month for you."

"Yes, and a traumatic one."

"How are you doing with the Brodie thing?"

"It has been hard. I have been having nightmares and had really thrown me off my game, but I am starting to fall back into a routine."

"I am still having nightmares about it as well. It just makes me so angry to know that, if you weren't a bounty hunter, none of that would have happened."

"Maybe. But I am in the Rangeman job now, and what is happening now is because of the Rangeman job. And it wasn't so long ago I was almost killed by your brother because of my association with you, and in the past I have had jobs at a dry cleaners, Cluck-in-a-bucket, you name it. I have had a variety of jobs and they have all ended with my life in danger. There are bad people everywhere and, although I may be exposed to more than my share as a result of my job, it is not always my job that brings me problems. It may be just because."

"You are a danger magnet, that's for sure, but you are my danger magnet. I miss you. Bob misses you." Bob is Morelli's abnormally large, orange, shaggy-haired beast that masquerades as a dog was originally mine but decided he liked the backyard better at Morelli's house. He is affectionate, exuberant, and as dumb as a post. However, it is unlikely he misses me. Saying that Bob misses me is Morelli's way of saying he wants to have wild gorilla sex.

"Bob is a special dog, that's for sure." Morelli started to smile. "But he will have to go on missing me. I am not coming over in the near future."

"Are you sure you and Ranger haven't hooked up? I saw how upset he was at the hospital yesterday."

"Am I a competition for you? Do you love me more when you think Ranger and I have gotten together?"

"I love you because I love you. I don't love you more when you are around Ranger. That is ridiculous."

"Is it?" I looked at him for a moment, then down at the ground. "Sometimes around you, I feel a bit like a bone two dogs are fighting over."

"You don't feel that way with Ranger?"

"No. He is giving me room to figure things out for myself."

"But he is here with you. He doesn't have to fight for you."

"He wouldn't anyway. That's not his MO." I stood up. "I need to get back to work."

"I love you, Cupcake. Think about us. Think about how good we were together. Then get back to me."

I sat back down. "We were living in la-la land. We were ignoring our real issues, those same issues that made it impossible for us to settle down with each other. Think about how long we went out together, and how we could not commit to each other. Think about how we always had to have separate residences and, when we did try to live together, were unable to last more than four months. And it only lasted that long because my sister and her husband and their kids were living in my apartment and I could not return home. Think about how much you hate my job and always tried to get me to quit, even though I mostly like it.

"I miss your friendship immensely. I like you as a person a whole lot. I have a lot of respect for you both as a person as well as a cop. But I am not sure if it is in our best interest to continue a relationship when you apparently do not have the same respect for me. I need some time to work through this myself."

"I do have the same respect for you."

"Really? That is why you are constantly trying to get me to quit my job with Vinnie? That is why you told my mother I am not a very good bounty hunter? That is why you yelled at me in front of people I work with? All I know is that, when your brother threatened me and put me in danger, I tried to comfort you. But when something I do puts me in danger, you yell at me."

"Yelling is what my family does when they are upset. You cannot take it seriously."

"I understand that. I yelled a lot at Dickie when we broke up." Dickie Orr was my ex-husband, a mistake I made in my early twenties but had thankfully been able to avoid ever since. "However, in my book yelling only happens when you have lost respect for another person. You yelling at me is a sign that you have lost respect for me."

"No, me yelling at you is a sign I care enough about you to get upset about threats upon you or you putting yourself into danger. I cannot help yelling at you when I see you hurt or upset or scared. It is a release of emotion, much like when you cry."

"That is not the way I see things and it upsets me when you yell at me. I will be already upset about the event, and then you add to the upset. It makes it hard to deal with."

"I will try hard to not yell. I cannot promise anything, but I will try hard to not yell."

"It's not just the yelling, although what that yelling represents is a big issue. I think we each need to separately think about where we are going. Are we going anywhere? Do we want to go anywhere? Do we want to get more serious? Do we want to stay friends but separately see other people? Your last argument created so many options for us. What I think it did for me is it has highlighted that we cannot continue the way we were, just coasting with no commitment. Where this leaves me is feeling very confused as to what I do want. Do I want anything more with you? Do I want to see if I can move forward in a relationship with someone else? I'm sorry, but I don't know the answer to those questions yet."

"I really messed things up, didn't I?"

"They were already messed up. You just highlighted some of the problems. Now you have to do some thinking as well. You need to decide where you are going and what you want. I am not the only person here. You need to decide if you are going to give me the respect I deserve, or even whether you can stop yelling long enough to admit to being scared or nervous so that I don't confuse your yelling for anger. Maybe in two or three weeks we can sit down together and sort through everything, but right now I am not ready to come to any decisions. Brodie is too fresh in my head still, and your argument with me is indelibly linked to Brodie's death. I relive his death and your argument with me every night when I sleep."

"You have nightmares about the argument we had?"

"Yes, every night. My nightmares are all the same. They are of me shooting Brodie and then you yelling at me for it, blaming me for it. As I said, I am having a hard time but I am working through it."

"What are you doing to work through it? Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I have gained ten pounds over the last month and I no longer fit into my jeans. The last time we broke up I did the same thing and my mother asked me whether I was pregnant. Hopefully my grandmother won't tell everyone at the hair salon this time. I am already dealing with her comments about me shooting Brodie and, judging by what I heard last night, I will have to deal with comments on the drugging thing. She wants to tell everybody I was almost raped." I grimaced. "I would probably be handing Brodie better if we hadn't broken up the same day, and conversely I would be handling breaking up with you better if I had not shot Brodie. The two together have been a double whammy and have really set me back a few paces. I'll recover. It will just take a bit of time. I'm trying to give myself that time."

"When you are ready to talk, let me know."

"You will be the first to know. In the meantime, think about where you stand. Think about what you want. Because together we will have to come to some decisions about what is best for the both of us, and how we will move forward from this point out. It is not a decision we should take lightly. I coasted into my first marriage. It didn't work. I don't want to coast into another commitment without thinking of all the ramifications first." I stood again and put my muffin wrappings in the garbage.

Morelli followed suit. As I moved back to the table, he grabbed me around my waist and pulled me in for a hug. "Just remember, when you are doing all your thinking, that I love you." He kissed me on the tip of my nose.

"I know. And I love you, too. I just don't know if I love you the way I need to love you in order to move past all our other issues."

"I hope you can forgive me."

"I forgave you a long time ago. What I can't do is forget. I don't know if I ever will be able to."

Morelli leaned down and kissed me in a kiss so sweet it confused me even more. I started to cry. He leaned back and, using his thumbs, wiped away my tears. "All I seem to do is make you upset."

"I know. It's best if you go now. We can talk again in another few weeks to see where we stand."

Morelli gathered up his laptop and put it back in his bag. He came back over to me and gave me a light kiss on my lips. "You know where to find me if you need me. I look forward to talking to you about this in another two or three weeks." I walked Morelli down to the lobby and signed him out. Saying goodbye to him, I took the elevator up to Ranger's apartment for some space to have a good cry.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve **

After washing my face and reapplying my mascara, I went down to the control room to talk with Hal. He was monitoring the internal cameras as well as all the Rangeman tracking systems in cars and on people. I personally have one on my car, as well as a GPS tracker in my purse. I have tried to get rid of them, but they always reappear without my knowing. I used to find this level of monitoring invasive, but the trackers have proven themselves so useful whenever my car gets stolen or incapacitated, I get lost or stolen, or when my life is in danger that I have learned to live with the intrusiveness.

"Hal, I hear we are going out together this afternoon while I run errands. I hope you are all right with that."

"I always like spending time with you. Did everything go all right with Morelli? You looked upset and I wondered whether you would like me to come down and break things up in there."

I leaned down and kissed Hal on the cheek. "Thanks. You are a good friend. I was all right. We were just having a 'relationship talk' and it was a little difficult to handle."

"Okay. But if you ever need any muscle to beat him up or something, just let me know and I will be happy to step in. You are like a sister to me, and I would be there for you if you need me."

"Thanks, Hal." I made arrangements to meet him in the break room at one o'clock after I had lunch with Ranger.

I went to the break room to grab a coffee and some lunch before heading to Ranger's office. I ran into Miguel. "I heard you are taking my patrol partner today and I will have to do patrol solo", he said with a smile. Then, looking at me more closely, he saw my blotchy eyes and red nose. "Morelli?" he asked. "I heard he was in the building."

"Yeah, but it's all right. It was a good conversation to get over with."

"Do you need me to sort him out? I would do that for you. You are like a sister to me. Just let me know and I will be there for you."

"Thank you. You and Hal are like your own little lynching army. I will be all right, thanks. No lynching is required."

"Just let me know if you change your mind."

"Thanks."

On the way out of the break room I ran into Raphael. "I heard Morelli was in the building. I almost came down to make sure you were okay." He took one look at my face and said "I should have come down, shouldn't I? Do you need me to teach him some manners? I would be happy to do so."

"Thank you for the offer, but I should be all right."

"Okay. If you change your mind, let me know. I will be there for you."

"Thank you."

I walked into Ranger's office with a smile on my face. When he looked up questioningly at me, I said "the guys are so protective, but in a good way. Morelli came by to show me the video. I couldn't help him at all. The effects of the drug hit me within about five minutes after Lundel spiked the drink. After Morelli showed me the video we started having a 'relationship talk'. It has been a few weeks coming. I ended up in tears. Since I got back on the floor twenty minutes ago, I have had three people offer to beat Morelli up. It's nice to think there is a whole team of people behind me, not only professionally but personally as well."

"You are well liked."

"Thank you, but it is more than that. I think of the guys like an extended family. It is nice to know they think of me the same way. A couple of them even told me I was like a sister to them. I never had brothers, but this is what I imagine having brothers would be like."

"It can be."

"Is that what it is like with your sisters?"

"Yes, I would do anything for them. Including beating up a cop if I felt such a thing was needed. Just like you did for the guys, when you confronted Brodie so he would stop shooting Ralph." It was true. A few hours before I ended up shooting Brodie, he had entered the Rangeman facility and shot Ralph, the guard working at reception. Ralph was wearing a flak vest, thankfully, as Brodie shot him two or three times. I put on a flak vest of my own, took a gun, and confronted Brodie before Ranger, Tank and Morelli had a chance to swoop in and be the hero. I subdued Brodie, but that was the basis for the argument Morelli and I had. I still think I did the right thing and would do the same thing all over again.

Ranger got up and, coming over to me, gave me a light kiss on the lips. "It's nice to see you. How did your morning go?" He picked up his lunch off the corner of his desk and brought it over to join me at the small conference table in the corner of his office.

"Good, I guess. I sorted out my laundry this morning, then met with Morelli for an hour. Then I went upstairs for some down time for half an hour, followed by making arrangements to meet with Hal at one o'clock in the break room. I then ran into Miguel and Raphael on the way in here. Pretty boring stuff."

"How did your conversation go with Morelli?"

"Good. We agreed to talk again in another two or three weeks. There were no real surprises. He wants to get back together and apologized for what he said. I told him not to apologize because he meant it, and we were in a stage where we either have to move forward or just stay as friends, but we could not continue coasting as we have been. He didn't like that, but I didn't give him any options so he had to accept it.

"It is hard, because I care about him and I know I am hurting him. I am hurting myself, too. But I don't know if I care enough about him to put up with his lack of respect or his way of dealing with things. I internalize it when he yells at me. It used to be that I would want to be with him when something went wrong because he would make me feel better. Now, I dread seeing him when something goes wrong because I know I will get chewed out. He calls me a disaster magnet. It doesn't make me feel good about myself when he does that. Who wants to think of themselves as a screw-up? But in his mind he is just stating a fact."

"You aren't a disaster magnet."

"Thanks. He may actually be right, but I don't like hearing it from him. I coasted into my first marriage. Dickie was a prick who couldn't keep it in his pants. But I couldn't see that because I had not asked any of the hard questions. I just drifted into marriage with him. I have been together with Morelli for a long time. I doubt I want kids, but that doesn't mean I don't want a committed relationship. I do. I want to have someone to come home to every night, someone to wake up beside every morning. Someone to cry with and someone to laugh with. But I'm not sure if that person is Morelli. He is a good friend to me, but his lack of respect for me and what I do for a living is a huge impediment."

"Do you think your unwillingness to get a new job is partly because Morelli wants you to? Because you are putting roadblocks in so you don't get more serious with him?"

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about that before. Maybe?" We sat in silence for a moment, finishing our lunches, when I asked "how did your morning go?"

"It was good. I worked on my new account and have identified the system we will recommend. I then worked with Tank to design the new space in the control room and we ordered the furniture and the electronic equipment for it. It should all be installed in about three weeks. At the same time, your office will be created. I imagine you will be moving offices in about two weeks." Ranger gathered up his garbage from lunch and stood up. "Are we still on for four o'clock today?"

"Sure. Do you want me to meet you here?"

"That would be great. We could do half an hour in the range and an hour in the gym."

Oh goody.

* * *

Hal and I drove first to the police station to pick up my body receipt for Virginia Myaneski. Hal hadn't got the memo that this was not a protection detail. He walked behind me and to the side at all times, hands loose and ready to unholster his gun. He was following me so closely and scrutinizing the area surrounding us so intently I wondered what he would do if I stopped suddenly. I decided not to try it. He was doing me a favour by accompanying me for the day.

After picking up my body receipt, we drove to Rangeman. We parked in the back parking lot and entered the office through the back door. I gave my two body receipts to Connie and waited while she wrote cheques for me.

"Hey, girlfriend. Hey, Hal sweetie. How's it hangin'?" said Lula.

Taking lessons from Ranger, Hal just smiled. "Things are going much better today than they were yesterday", I said.

"Well, at least you aren't in the hospital today. What exactly happened, anyway?"

"I made a recommendation on someone for one of Ranger's clients. The person I was recommending the client not to hire is mad at me for making the recommendation. He vandalized my apartment yesterday morning, and spiked my drink with GHB in the afternoon. Ranger caught him trying to kidnap me and got me to the hospital shortly afterwards."

Vinnie came out of his office. "Have the drugs left your system now?"

"Yes, I feel much better today." I was surprised at Vinnie's show of caring.

"Then why the hell are you still in here? I have outstanding skips for you to catch. I'm not made of money, you know. I'm bleeding out here." And now we were back to the old Vinnie.

"Vinnie, you have three outstanding skips. Connie just handed them to me. And none of them are high bonds. You are not bleeding out."

"I have a bunch of bonds that come due over the next two weeks. You and I both know not all those fuckers will show at court. You could get very busy in the next couple of weeks."

"I hear you. I will do the computer work at Rangeman this afternoon and pick up Lula tomorrow to capture these guys." I put the new files in my bag with the two cheques. I said goodbye to Connie and Lula, hearing Lula call out "goodbye, girlfriend. Goodbye, Hal, sweetie. Let me know if you ever want a tug, if you know what I mean. I am always in the business for big guys like you." I glanced over at Hal and saw that his face had blushed to a bright red colour. I followed him out of the office.

"What next?" asked Hal.

"Bank next. And then to my parents' house for coffee, and to the florist's, then back to Rangeman."

"Which bank?" I told him that I wanted to go to Trenton Cooperative. He drove to the branch and followed me into the bank, in full protection detail as I went to the ATM and deposited my cheques. Leaving with a bank account that was slightly healthier than when I had entered the bank, Hal drove me to my parents' house.

My parents live in a semi-detached house in the heart of the Burg. It was painted a soft yellow colour and the front door was painted a deep red. For years it had been painted a mud brown colour on the bottom third of the siding and a mustard yellow on the top two-thirds of the house. When Brodie graffitied all over the house a month ago, my mother had it painted a butter yellow colour. I am still getting used to it. I liked the thought that nothing changed at my parents' house and I could always count on my parents' house being the same no matter how crazy my life got. I am having a much harder time acclimatizing myself to the new paint colour than they are.

In her unerring instinct that lets her know when one of the family is coming over for a visit, my grandmother was standing, looking out the door. As we walked up the path, my grandmother opened the door to us and said "isn't this a nice surprise!" She gave me a hug and a kiss. "I didn't know you were coming over today. Hal, I haven't seen you in a while. How are you? Are you coming in for coffee? We just got a cinnamon streusel coffee cake from the bakery this morning, and there is a fresh pot of coffee on." And see, that is one of the special things about coming home. There is always a new coffee cake just purchased, and there is always a fresh pot of coffee on.

Hal and I went back through the living room and dining room to the kitchen. I said "hi" to my mother and went over to her to give her a hug and a kiss. "See, Mom? All in one piece."

"But for the grace of God", my mother said as she crossed herself. She cut slabs of cake for each of us while I poured coffee. We all sat at the small kitchen table, Hal wedging himself as best as he could in the small space. My mother looked at me as I carried the coffee to the table. "Oh, my God. You're pregnant!" She plunked herself down on the chair and looked longingly at the cabinet in which she kept her whiskey.

"I'm not pregnant", I said.

My grandmother starting fanning herself. "Who's the father? Is it Joe? Is it Ranger? Is it Hal? How was he in bed?" Hal looked up in shock at me, shaking his head in a vehement no.

"I am not pregnant!"

My mother gave in, got up and poured herself two fingers of whiskey. She looked at us. "Does anyone else want some? You can't have any, Stephanie. It isn't good for the baby." My mother knocked back the drink and poured herself another.

"I'M NOT PREGNANT."

"There is no shame in it, dear. Even Valerie got pregnant out of wedlock", said my grandmother. And it's true. My perfect sister, Saint Valerie, got pregnant before she was married to her second husband. It was a shock to the family and the talk of the neighbourhood.

"For the love of God, I. AM. NOT. PREGNANT."

"You aren't pregnant?" asked my mother.

"Not unless I am capable of immaculate conception."

"Thank God", said my mother. "I didn't know if I had it in me to be a grandmother to another child born out of wedlock."

"Hopefully you will never have to worry about that again."

"You need to settle down, start your family."

"We talked about this, Mom. I don't want a family."

"You aren't getting any younger. I just don't want you to miss out. Having children is one of God's given pleasures." My mom was getting a starry look in her eyes. With the direction this conversation was heading, I thought this might be a good time to leave. I stood up. "Wait!" cried my mother. "We need to finish talking about this."

"Mom, we have talked about this so many times already. We even talked about this last night. There is nothing more to say on the subject." I sat back down again.

"But you have to have children."

"Why? I am happy being an aunt and, I think if I am not sure whether I want children, it isn't right for me to bring children into this world. I see many children through my line of work that are unwanted, that were not loved the way they deserved to be. And they get involved in gangs, looking for that love. They get involved in crime, because they don't have parents at home who care enough about them to make sure they live on the straight and narrow path. I am not saying I would be a neglectful parent. But I think children sense whether you want them or not, no matter what you do. I would hate to have children and for them to sense I didn't want them after all. It is the kind of mistake you can't fix. At this point I definitely do not want children. I am very happy with Rex and my nieces. I love my nieces, but I also love being able to hand them back to Valerie at the end of the day. I don't want the responsibility and I don't want the work."

"That is very selfish of you."

"I don't see that as being selfish. I see that as being realistic. And I think that it is selfish of you to want me to have children so you can have more grandchildren to cuddle."

"No! I am only thinking of you."

"Then, if you are thinking of me, think about what I want. I don't want children. They don't fit in with my life and I am not willing to change my life." I stood up.

"What about Joe? What does he want?"

"I don't know what Joe wants. At this point, I don't know if he knows what he wants. But while I know I don't want kids, I am not sure whether I want Joe. I don't know what will happen with him. We have some things to work out. I will let you know when Joe and I have decided."

"But at this point you have split."

"Yes. At this point we are not together. We are taking a breather and re-evaluating where we want to be right now and where we are going in our lives."

"He's a keeper and you are letting him get away", said my grandmother. "You can tell just by looking at him he would be good in the sack. And that's important. You can be friends with dozens of people but it is important to be married to someone who is good in the sack."

"Ma!" exclaimed my mother.

"Was Grandpa good in the sack?" I asked, smiling.

"Not as good as he could have been. He had a little thingy, if you know what I mean. That's why I know what I am talking about. You need to marry someone who is good in bed."

My mom, shooting daggers at my grandmother, said "what happens if Joe walks away from you while you are deciding about him?"

"Then he will make a wonderful husband to someone else. That is a chance I am willing to take."

"You're a fool", said my mother. My grandmother nodded in agreement.

"That may be, but only time will tell whether I am the fool or the smart one." I leaned over my mother and gave her a hug and a kiss goodbye, then did the same with my grandmother. Hal thanked my mother and grandmother for their hospitality, and then we left.

As we got in the car, I apologized to Hal for the scene he had to witness. "That's okay, Steph. I have had friends who are girls who have told me about that kind of family pressure. I thought they were exaggerating. I can see now they were not. Why does it matter so much to parents to have their children procreate? It doesn't make sense."

"I don't know. Maybe it is because we work in the area of society we work. It would be hard for us to close our eyes to the dangers children would have to face, day after day. I don't think I could take it. I think I would be a terrible parent."

"I don't know, Steph. You are highly protective and loving. I think you would make a good parent. Whether or not you would enjoy it is another story."

"So many options ahead of me." I sighed. "I feel like I am being pressured to figure it all out and I don't feel qualified to do so."

"Luckily you don't have to figure it out today. You have time, even if your family or Morelli wants you to make a decision sooner than you are comfortable. Just remember you don't have to. You can make that decision whenever you want."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen **

I knocked on the door to Ella's apartment. Luis let me in and directed me towards the kitchen. I followed my nose. Ella was making dinner for the break room. I could smell the baked beans and the beef barley soup bubbling in their crock pots on the counter. A casserole was in the process of being made for Ranger and myself, as well as one for Luis and Ella. Ella had just finished making what must have been thirty sandwiches and half that each of vegetables and dip, salads, and cut fruit. There was a basket of whole fruit washed and ready to eat, and flats of water and juices to put in the refrigerator. She had placed most of the food on a wheelie cart ready to go down to the break room.

I came into the kitchen and gave the flowers to Ella. "Thank you for doing my laundry yesterday. That must have taken you forever and I am sure it was time you didn't have to spend."

"That is all right. I took things out of the freezer to have for meals for the boys, and I packaged salads and baby carrots because they didn't need any preparation. It all worked out. Everyone was fed and happy, although everyone was worried about you. Are you feeling better?" she asked, burying her nose in the bouquet to smell the flowers before running a vase of water.

"Yes, I am, thanks. It was like a bad hangover. I was able to sleep most of it off while I was at the hospital."

"It was scary. To think what might have happened if Ranger had not come back. Do you know why the kidnapper did it?" Ella put the flowers in the middle of the dining room table.

"Yes and no. We know why he did it – he is mad at me for a recommendation I made. But we don't know what he intended to do with me. I don't know if we will ever know. What we do know, however, is that he has taken a somewhat minor offense like vandalism of my apartment and car and bumped it up to kidnapping. In all honesty, my apartment and cars are vandalized so often the police hardly pay much attention any more. But kidnapping is another story. The police tend to get quite upset about that."

"So does Ranger. I saw him after you got back from the hospital last night, while you were in the shower, and he still looked upset. I haven't seen him that upset since Julie was kidnapped."

"I know. I am sorry I worried everyone like that. I should have been more careful."

"How were you to know? You were at the laundromat. It seems like a fairly innocuous place to be. It should have been safe." She continued cutting up vegetables for the casseroles.

"You would think." I didn't want to tell her, but in my life there is no place that is safe.

* * *

I met Ranger at his desk with a box of bullets in hand and a gun upon my leg. Ranger smiled. "Ready to shoot something?" he asked.

"Hell, yeah. I spent the day talking to Joe, getting badgered by Vinnie, and getting harassed by my mother and grandmother. Vinnie wants me to get moving on the three outstanding files. My mother and grandmother want me to marry Joe and settle down to have kids. They are not listening when I tell them I don't want to have kids, or even that I don't think Joe is for me. They barely listened when I told them Morelli and I are taking a break from each other. I was so frustrated. And it was an uncomfortable conversation when they thought I was pregnant and asked Hal if it was his. He handled himself well, having to listen to all that crap. He was very professional. I was impressed."

"I am glad he handled himself well. He is a good man."

"Yes, he is."

We took the elevator down to the basement and walked down to the shooting range. Putting on ear protection and safety glasses, we walked into the range itself. Ranger cued up a body target and sent it down to the far end of the range. I took out the gun and, trying not to think about how much the body target resembled the shape of a person, I shot a clip at the target. I got some bulls-eyes. I refilled the clip while Ranger gave me some pointers and set up a clean target. I again shot a clip into the target and got several more bulls-eyes. After several more clips and targets, we put away our safety gear and went up to the gym.

"You are really improving in your aim and it didn't seem to bother you quite the same as it did a few days ago", said Ranger.

"I tried really hard to ignore the fact I could kill someone. It is the only way I can stay sane while shooting."

"At some point you will have to envision shooting someone, otherwise you will choke if you are in a situation where you are face to face with a killer. It doesn't mean you have to like shooting people. It just means you have to be prepared for the possibility."

We walked into the gym. There were two of the patrol guys lifting weights and Tank was on the treadmill doing cardio. Ranger and I walked over to the mats. I stripped down to my sports bra and I could swear I heard all the oxygen being sucked out of the room by the other men. Ranger turned to glare at them as they stared at me, stupefied, weights forgotten. Only Tank continued what he was doing. He had sparred with me before. The sight of me in my sports bra was not new. Having said that, he looked like he was enjoying Ranger's facial expression and was trying not to laugh. The other two men glanced at Ranger and, seeing his displeasure, turned red and immediately went back to lifting weights again, talking in loud voices about a movie they had seen the night before. While they pretended they no longer saw me, I could see them sneaking surreptitious looks as Ranger led me through a series of stretches.

I am the least flexible person around. Ranger is like a human elastic band. If he was dropped on the pavement, he would bounce. Me, I would splat. Ranger led me through a series of stretches anyway, pushing me gently to help me extend the stretch. "We will work on your stretches every day. You will never be extremely flexible as it does not come naturally to you, but you can be infinitely more flexible than you currently are."

Oh, goody.

After stretching, Ranger and I practiced a variety of holds. Forward facing, coming at me from the side, from behind, and from the floor. I fought out my frustration at being drugged yesterday, at having my family fail to listen to me today, and at the ongoing situation with Morelli. At the beginning Ranger just let me fight. As the lesson went on and I had worked out some of the frustration, he started to direct me in what he wanted me to do. At times he would walk me through it verbally; at other times he would show me what he wanted me to do. Tank finished his run and warmed down, finishing with stretches. He came over to the mats and volunteered to act as the dummy so that Ranger could better instruct me. "Just be careful. I'm not wearing a jock today", he said with a smile. I have trained with Tank before. He is well familiar with my signature move of kicking a guy in the balls. It has worked well for me in the past.

"You take all the fun out of it, Tank", I said. We worked further on holds from the front, sides and back, leaving the holds from the floor for another day. An hour later I was hot and sweaty, and stiff from all the bending and stretching. Ranger threw me a towel and a bottle of water. After I drank the bottle, he led me through the same series of stretches we had started with. When we left an hour and a half after we had arrived, the two weightlifters were still there, eyeing me while Tank, Ranger and I walked by, and there were three guys out in the hall peeking through the windows and trying to look like they had some reason to be there. Ranger was scowling by the time we reached the elevator.

"I am sorry for the behavior of the guys, Babe. They should know better. Tomorrow I will shut the gym down so that you can train in comfort."

"You don't have to do that. They are just getting excited because they don't have any women in their lives. They weren't being disrespectful. I don't think they would dare considering I was with you."

"My guys are loyal to a fault, but some of them aren't the nicest guys. Some of them have done bad things in their past and are working hard to try to atone for them. However, they might not have the manners to not make you uncomfortable."

"I think, as long as I have a training partner, you won't have to worry. I won't lie. Some of the staff scare me. It's when they have the gang tattoos and the kill marks that I start to get a little nervous. But you will always be with me and none of the staff would ever go against you. And what they are doing now? They are just looking. A woman can't get to her thirties and not be used to men looking at least a little bit. They aren't being disrespectful about it. They aren't staring."

"Okay. Let me know if you ever start to feel uncomfortable. I would be happy to shut down the gym."

* * *

Crying, I woke up out of a nightmare. Ranger gathered me into a hug, rubbing my back as I cried myself back to sleep. In what may have been minutes but may have been hours, I woke up again. Easing my way out of bed, I went to the bathroom. I was still unsettled from my nightmare and did not think I would be able to go back to sleep again. I went to Ranger's closet and, getting his bathrobe out, enveloped myself in the comforting smell of Bulgari Green. I checked the time. It was four o'clock. Late enough that I could get up for the day. I stalked to the kitchen and made a fresh pot of coffee. While I waited for it to brew, I went to my bag and pulled out the three files of Vinnie's.

The first felon was Helena Wilson, arrested for identity theft. She was a postal carrier who lived in an apartment building. She had registered for a credit card in her neighbour's name and address. Wilson saw the new credit card arrive when she was delivering the mail. She stole it. The neighbor would not have known of the theft until she received the bills. Unfortunately for Wilson, she used the stolen credit card at a local store. The neighbor whose identity she was stealing was working the cash that day at the store and recognized both her own name as well as the felon's face. She called over security and reported the theft of the card while the felon was in the store. When the felon was arrested, she had fifteen credit cards on her, all made out with different names. It was a medium level bond. We should be able to find her at home. She had been suspended from doing her job at the postal office.

I poured myself a coffee and doctored it with cream. Tiptoeing through the bedroom, I made it almost to the office when Ranger sleepily whispered "Babe? Why are you up?"

"Shh. Everything is okay. I couldn't sleep so I got up to work on Vinnie's files. Go back to sleep. I'll just be in the office on the computer doing searches."

"Everything is not okay if you are having trouble sleeping. Do you want to talk about it?" Ranger sounded very awake now.

"No, I'm good. I'll just work on these files for a while. It is only four o'clock. Go back to sleep." I went into the office and opened up the second file.

The second medium level bond was for Reese Kraust, an eighteen-year old girl who was feeling lazy one day. Instead of taking the dog for a walk through the local park, she held the leash out the window of a moving car and literally dragged her puppy down the street. She put her car up as collateral to secure the bond. She lives in the Burg.

The third file was a low level bond for Victor Wu. He was a very frustrated neighbor. The city has poop and scoop laws, and the dog owner ignored this requirement. Every day at the same time the dog would poop on a Wu's lawn. And every day the owner would refuse to pick up the poop. Victor Wu, tired of having to pick up after the dog, mailed the poop back to the dog owner. The dog owners were not charged as there was no proof that their dog was the one leaving the deposits. However, Mr. Wu put a return address on the package that he sent to the dog owner and the police arrested him for harassment. Mr. Wu also lives in the Burg. We take our dog poop seriously there.

Ranger came through the office with a coffee in his hand. He yawned. "I could make it worth your while to stay in bed, you know. You would still be awake, but it would be much more enjoyable than working for Vinnie."

"Tempting, but no. I am trying to get my head on straight right now. Besides, with missing half the day yesterday dealing with Lundel-related issues, I have to catch up a bit."

"I know. But I thought I would try anyway. I'm not a saint." He smiled one of his half smiles and took a sip of his coffee.

"And I wouldn't want you to be."

"So tell me about your nightmare."

"You aren't going to let up about it, are you?" I asked.

"Nope. Tenacity is my middle name."

"Ricardo Carlos Tenacity Manosa. Kind of catchy." I said, smiling.

"Smart ass", he said. "So, tell me about your nightmare."

I sighed. "It was almost the same nightmare as I have been having nightly. I shoot Brodie, Morelli yells at me. The only difference is in tonight's dream I have children and they see me shoot Brodie. Morelli yells at me, saying I have to give up capturing skips, that it isn't good for the children. I woke up upset because, essentially, I agree with him. I don't think this is a job I can do and be a mother as well. But most of the time I like my job and I think that says something good. No matter how much you love your job there will be times you don't want to do it, or there are tasks you dread. But if you like your job most of the time you are doing well. I haven't seen a job I think I would like better. Sure, I've always wanted to be a mattress tester or massage assessor or mani-pedi evaluator, but I don't think they are actual jobs." I shrugged. "I think all that talk with Morelli and later with my family brought on the twist to the nightmare."

"You worry about children, don't you?"

"I don't want them. I like having a hamster. As long as you feed it, give it water, and periodically clean its cage, you are golden. You don't have to wake up in the middle of the night with it crying, change its dirty diapers, deal with them being sick, clean crayon marks off the walls, or have your house trashed with toys all over the place. You don't have to worry over whether they are eating properly and getting enough exercise or having enough fun time with their friends or are spending too much time on the internet. You don't have to worry about whether they are hanging out with the right people or are getting into trouble when your back is turned."

"Kids are a definite responsibility."

"My mom thinks I am selfish to not want kids. But I think, in this world, you are selfish to want them. My mom doesn't get that. She is so convinced I would love to have kids. And sure, if I had them I know I would love them. But I don't think I would love to have them. There is a difference. I am not willing to change my life and I know that, to be fair to the kids, I would have to change my life significantly."

"You don't have to have children. They are a worry and a blessing all in one. And you are right. The segment of society in which we work is not conducive to having children. That is one reason I live up here and Rachel and Julie live in Miami. You saw it when Julie was kidnapped. We make enemies in our line of work and they will use whatever means they can to get to us. Including manipulating or hurting our children. I don't want to have any more children because of that."

I took a sip of my coffee. "I am finding it is a tough road to make the conscious decision to not have kids. Society expects us – especially women – to reproduce and looks down on us if we do not. Like there is something wrong with us. Realistically? I couldn't even cut it as a dog mother. Bob became Morelli's partly because he was too much work and too much responsibility for me. I love him, but I don't want to care for him. I think I would be the same way with children. I would love them, but I wouldn't want that day in, day out requirement of caring for them."

"What does Morelli want?"

"I always thought he didn't want kids. He too sees that dangerous element in society and does not want to bring up kids in it. Having said that, he is making more and more noises about having kids lately. I don't know if he wants them, however, or if he knows having them will make me quit my job. I don't know if he has thought it through. He isn't a very introspective kind of guy. I'm usually not either, but since Brodie I have been doing a lot of thinking and reevaluating."

"Any revelations?"

"I don't know. I am still working it out in my head."

"If you ever want to talk about it, I am here. Do you want another coffee?" Ranger got out of his chair and went into the kitchen to refill the cups.

I opened up Ranger's laptop, logged into the search engines and inputted the name of my first skip by the time Ranger returned with my coffee. He came up behind me and put the cups down on the desk. Putting his hands on the back of my neck, he massaged the tense muscles for a few minutes. I tipped my head down to give him greater access to my neck. "Mattress tester? Really?" He smiled. He kissed the top of my head, picked up his cup, and took it into the bathroom with him to have his shower. The day had officially started.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen **

After doing my research, having a leisurely breakfast with Ranger and a long hot shower, I was still early getting to the bonds office and was the first one there. I entered the office and started a pot of coffee. I looked over my notes again, choosing the order in which Lula and I would attack the outstanding skips. I thought, if we were lucky, we would be able to capture all three of the skips before three o'clock, when I had to return to Rangeman for another training session. I was not counting on this, however. While we were often lucky, it was usually only after several attempts at making captures we were successful.

I brought in the GPS system from the fleet car and programmed in the directions to each of the three locations. Then I had a cup of coffee and waited. I turned on Connie's computer and played three games of Solitaire and one of FreeCell before Connie showed up, fifteen minutes late. "Bless you. You put on coffee. I have been at the jail bonding out Candy McAdams. She was arrested for solicitation again. I got called out in the middle of my breakfast."

"No problem. I have just been here playing games on your computer." I helped myself to more coffee but I wasn't sure why I wanted it. I had so much coffee that morning my nerves were beginning to sing and my body was shaking. However, it was keeping me awake after such a sleepless night.

Lula sauntered into the office carrying a dozen doughnuts. "You're late", I said.

"Am I? It's nine thirty."

"I know. You are supposed to be here at nine."

"Aren't you Little Miss Cranky-Pants." I took a deep breath as Lula continued. "You're always cranky when you aren't getting some. Officer Hottie must be out of the picture still. You are living at Ranger's though, aren't you? Why aren't you getting any? You have the eye bags to go with staying up all night. What are you and Ranger doing at night if you aren't getting it on?"

"This morning I couldn't sleep so we stayed up drinking coffee talking about having kids."

"You're pregnant!" said Lula and Connie at the same time with a squeal.

"NO! I am not pregnant!" Connie and Lula both looked pointedly at my stomach. "I have gained a little weight since I shot Brodie. I am a stress eater, you know that. And I have had a little too much of … everything. I am not pregnant."

"Are you sure? Don't pregnant women eat a lot?" asked Lula.

"Yes, I am sure. You would have to get some to get pregnant, and I haven't had some in a month."

"Oh, girlfriend", said Lula. "No wonder you're cranky. I would be cranky as well if I hadn't had some in a month. Lula needs her honeys."

"If you aren't pregnant, why were you up talking about kids with Ranger last night?" asked Connie. "Are the two of you planning on starting a family?"

"No! God! What is with you guys?"

"Cranky-pants", Lula muttered under her breath.

"My family has been putting a lot of pressure on me to settle down with Morelli, quit my job, and become a stay-at-home mother. Morelli is putting a lot of pressure on me to get back together with him. He would also like me to quit my job and he is starting to make kid noises as well. I think, with him, the kid noises are more related to the fact he knows I would not be able to continue skip chasing if I was a mother than it is out of any desire to have children. The hours are not conducive to parenting and the work is too dangerous. I have been finding it all a little much to handle, especially on top of Brodie. I haven't been sleeping and when I woke up and could not go back to sleep last night, Ranger stayed up with me talking it out. That's it. Nothing more. I am not getting together with Ranger nor am I getting together with Morelli right now. I need to get my head screwed on straight first."

"So how did you leave it with Morelli?" asked Connie as she helped herself to a second cup of coffee and sorted through the doughnuts to get a sour cream glazed.

"We are going to talk again in two or three weeks, when we both have had a chance to think about what we want." I gave in and pulled out a jelly filled doughnut, sighing in pleasure as I bit into it. It had red jelly in the middle. The good kind. Much better than the lemon-filled ones.

"What do you want?" asked Lula.

"Honestly? I don't know. I like the fact Morelli is willing to make a commitment, but I don't feel he truly accepts all of me."

"What about Ranger? That man is fine. I wouldn't mind getting it on with him", said Lula.

"I love how Ranger accepts all of me, but the negative is he is an even greater commitment-phobe than I am. I could put years into the relationship and have nothing at the end of it."

"Even with commitment the relationship could end and you would have nothing. Think of divorces. Unless you want kids. Then you would have something", said Connie as she looked at me over the rim of her coffee cup.

"NO! I don't want kids. They are a lot of work and I don't feel the rewards are worth it. I don't even like having the responsibility of a dog. I am a much better hamster owner. They don't require much care."

"Hunh. You have a problem", said Lula.

Tell me about it, I thought as I helped myself to another doughnut.

* * *

Lula and I drove first to Hamilton Township to pick up Helena Wilson. I told Lula about Helena on the way. "So she stole someone's credit rating, only to be caught by the person she stole the rating from. Is that karma, or what?" I asked.

"Yeah, karma's a bitch."

We pulled into an apartment building complex. There were five apartments around a circle with a roadway and parking lots joining the buildings. There was a playground in the hub. Children were playing loudly as they raced between the swings and the slide and the climbing equipment. Mothers huddled together in communal misery. I shuddered as I looked at the children. Not for me, I thought.

We headed for building C and parked in the lot in front of the main doors. We got a good spot since most of the residents were at work. Walking inside, I found there was no elevator and Wilson lived on the fourth floor. I sighed looking at the stairs. I would feel every single one of those extra pounds.

We got to the top of the stairs, and Lula and I stopped to catch our breath. "I thought Ranger would have you running laps, now that you are working part time for Rangeman", said Lula.

"No, I haven't had to work on cardio. He hasn't seen me climb stairs in a while, so he doesn't know how out of shape I am. He has, however, had me taking self-defense lessons. Apparently I have been cranky with him as well and he says beating someone up will make me feel better."

"Who are you beating up?" asked Lula as we started walking down the hall to Wilson's apartment.

"Mainly Ranger, although I have also worked with Tank. Ranger and Tank feel that, if I am used to beating up someone of Tank's size, nothing will intimidate me."

"Tank is the honey out of all my honeys who was the hardest to forget", said Lula. A couple of years ago Lula and Tank were engaged. It was a situation, engineered by Lula, which panicked Tank. He adopted three cats partly to help keep himself calm. Lula is allergic to cats and put out the ultimatum for Tank to choose between the cats and her. Tank chose the cats. I am nothing compared to the Cranky-Pants Lula was after her relationship with Tank ended. "If you use your signature move on him and sack him, can you take pictures while he is rolling around on the ground?" Apparently Lula is still a little cranky where Tank is concerned.

We knocked on Wilson's door, listening for sounds within. I could hear the sound of feet shuffling towards the door and then a pause as she looked out the peephole. I knocked on the door again. There was silence. "Helena Wilson, we know you are in there. We can hear you."

"What do you want?" she asked, her voice muffled by the door.

"Bond enforcement. You missed your court date and we are taking you back to court so you can reschedule."

"I missed it on purpose. I don't want to go to jail."

"That is not how it works, though. If you go to court, you have the chance of avoiding jail or having a lesser sentence. However, if you miss your court date it makes you look bad and, if you do it on a regular basis, it will give you a tougher sentence." She didn't really have a chance at avoiding jail. I had seen her file and with fifteen counts of theft she was as guilty as sin. But I wouldn't tell her that.

"Let me get dressed first. I am still in my pyjamas."

"That is all right with me, but you need to let us in the apartment before you change."

"Can I see some identification first?" she asked.

I got out my fake badge and quickly held it up to the peephole on the door. "Okay? If you open the door, I can give you one of my business cards as well."

"I don't need your business cards. They are easy to make up. The identification is harder to forge." I smiled to myself, thinking how easy it had been to go online and get a fake badge made. Yet, it was exactly the belief the badges were official that made them so useful.

I didn't hear anything from the other side of the door for a few minutes, then I heard a thump. Lula knocked on the door again. "Helena!" I called, then listened at the door. I heard the sounds of weeping. "It isn't that bad! You just have to go to court and get your date rescheduled. We can get you bonded out again today if you want."

The crying grew louder. I looked at Lula. She mouthed "pathetic" to me. I tried the door. It was still locked.

"Helena, you have to open the door."

"No."

"Yes!"

"I don't want to."

"Why?"

"I am embarrassed. All those mothers out at the playground will see me, and they will know I am a bad person."

"If you let us in and accompany us down to the car nicely, we will not put the cuffs on you until we get to the car. That way you aren't embarrassed in front of the other residents. I am sorry, but I have to put the cuffs on you before we get to the police station. It is protocol." It wasn't really policy that I needed to bring in felons in cuffs, but I was feeling pretty cranky. Too little sleep behind me and too many life altering decisions ahead of me, and I wanted to take it out on somebody.

After a few more minutes of sobbing I heard the door unlock. I opened the door to see an older woman in fuzzy pink penguin-printed pyjamas huddled on the floor in tears. Lula and I walked in and shut the door. "Now, what do you want to wear?" I asked Helena as she continued to sit on the floor weeping. She just shook her head as she cried harder. "Lula is a wardrobe genius. She will find something good for you to wear."

The woman looked at Lula and her too-small fluorescent pink shirt that revealed a large portion of her stomach and matching skirt that barely covered her doodad, with her strappy silver four inch stilettos, and grimaced in horror. She got up and led us to her bedroom. She went to the closet and pulled out a pair of black khakis and a pale blue polo shirt. She went to the bathroom and washed her face, skimmed on some makeup and got dressed for the day. She came out and took a deep breath. "I'm as ready as I will ever be", she said. She headed for the door.

"Won't you need your purse for when you are released on bail again?" I asked. "You will need money to catch a cab home and you will need your keys in order to get back in your apartment."

She grabbed her purse from the table in the front hall and, squaring her shoulders, walked towards the door. I took her keys from her and turned off all the lights, locking the door behind us as I shut the door.

Lula led Helena down the hall to the stairs, and down the stairs to the lobby. I followed the two, watching to make sure Helena did not bolt. It was risky letting her leave the building without cuffs or shackles on, but it was a calculated risk. With the amount of panic and distress Helena was feeling, I did not think she would have gone willingly if I had put her in cuffs and shackles. Even so, it made it a little more nerve-wracking for me to not have her restrained. I was trying to be on my best guard to ensure she did not get away.

We walked through the lobby, saying hello to a senior sitting on one of the benches as we passed. Walking out to the parking lot, I thought about my situation with Morelli again. My frustration level rose. When we got out to the car, I opened the rear passenger door. I put on the cuffs, letting her keep her hands to her front, then shackled her to the floor. Lula looked a little surprised at this, but thankfully did not question me on it in front of Helena. Even so, I looked at Lula and said "a month. I have been without it for a month." She nodded her head. She understood. Miss Cranky-Pants at work.

"You know what you need? You need a doughnut. You need happy food. Ranger don't stock no happy food at his place. You need some happy food."

"I would like a doughnut", said Helena from the back seat.

"I am not having a doughnut. None of my jeans will do up. And besides, Ranger bought me a chocolate bar the other day."

"No – get out! He bought you a chocolate bar? He must have it bad. That totally goes against his philosophy. What did you have to do for the chocolate bar?"

"I didn't have to do anything. I was just having a bad day, so he bought me a chocolate bar."

"Was it good?"

"I don't know. That was the day I was drugged and I never got to eat it. He said he will buy me another one sometime."

"Huh. I'll believe it when I see it. He don't believe in no dessert. I think it was just fluke that he got you the one. Maybe you aren't remembering correctly. Maybe he didn't get you one and the drugs messed with your brain to make you think you got one."

"No, I don't think so. He really got me one."

"What is the big deal about a chocolate bar?" asked Helena from the back seat.

"This guy we work with believes dessert is devil's work and should not be eaten. He has arranged for me to have dessert before when I have had a bad day, but this is the first time he has bought me a chocolate bar. All I got to do was smell it, though."

"How did it smell?" asked Lula.

"Like heaven." All three of us sighed at the same time. I drove through the drive-through window of the doughnut shop and ordered a twenty pack of doughnut holes. Lula and I each took one and passed the box back to Helena. She ate all the cinnamon-dusted ones before handing it back to Lula. That's okay. She left the chocolate cake ones for Lula and me.

* * *

When we got to the police station I left Lula to guard the car and walked Helena into the holding area. I got my cuffs and shackles back, picked up my body receipt, and walked out to the car. Lula was sound asleep, her snoring shaking the car with its ferocity. That was the first thing I noticed. The second thing I noticed was that the tires looked awfully flat. I ran up to the car and looked down at the tires, only to see huge gaping holes. I walked around the car and saw there was a matching hole in each tire. As I got to the windshield, I noticed a note tucked under the windshield wiper blade. Pulling out the note, I read _"This time your tires were slashed. Next time it will be your pretty little face. Contact Jay Technologies and tell them you were mistaken. Tell them they should hire me."_ I opened the front passenger door. "Lula!" I said, "did you see anything?"

"What? I didn't see nothin'. I was just sitting here keeping watch of the car, but I didn't see nothin'. What happened? What was I supposed to see?"

"Somebody knifed the tires of the car and left a note for us. Are you sure you didn't see anything?"

"No and I was awake the whole time."

"You were not awake. I could hear you snoring three cars away."

"Hunh. I don't snore."

"Well, we are now stuck around the police station for a lot longer since we now have to wait until Morelli writes this up and Rangeman gets another car out to us."

"I'm not waiting around you, Miss Cranky-Pants. I'm calling Connie for a ride. When you want to go out chasing skips again, let me know." She picked up her phone and texted Connie. A few seconds later she said "Connie will be here in a few minutes."

"Heaven help you wanting to stick around with me. It's not like I want to see Morelli right now. No, but I have to see him because someone, I am not naming any names, fell asleep when they were guarding the car."

Lula's lip went out in a pout and she muttered under her breath "Cranky-Pants".

I called Morelli. "Hi. I've got bad news. The slasher has struck again. I was dropping off a skip in the precinct and, when I got back out to the car, all four of my tires were slashed. He either has been following us and I just didn't pick up on it, or it was a stroke of luck on his behalf, because I am not even driving my car yet. I am still driving one of the fleet vehicles."

"Where are you?"

"I am in the precinct parking lot. Lula is here with me. You had better come soon before she disappears."

"Stay in the car until you see me. I will be out in five minutes."

I climbed back in the car and reread the note. My hands were shaking. I turned to Lula. "Morelli will want to talk to you when he gets out."

"Well, he'd better get out here fast or Officer Hottie will miss his chance. Connie will be here soon."

"I told him to hurry." We waited in the car, each looking separate directions away from each other, not talking for a few minutes. "Look, I am sorry I am so grumpy lately. I'm trying not to be, but it seems like in every area of my life I am failing right now. I am struggling to regroup and I am sorry if I am taking it out on you."

"Hey, girlfriend, I could never stay mad at you for long. You are no fun to be around right now, but I understand where you are coming from. We have all been there. Well, I haven't, but I can imagine what you are going through. I've got a good imagination. It is one of my better characteristics. In fact, I was thinking about taking a creative writing course at night school. I could write about your relationship problems. What do you think?" I agreed with her that she has a good imagination although privately I thought I didn't want her writing about my relationship problems.

Connie got there before Morelli, but with some fast talking I was able to get them to wait with me until Morelli got there. While we were waiting for Morelli, I sent a text to Ranger. _"The slasher struck again, this time in the parking lot at the precinct. He left a note threatening me. I'm okay. Morelli is on his way out of the precinct as we speak. I will need some help now that all four tires have giant holes in them."_

Ranger responded immediately. _"Do you want me to come?" _

"_I want someone to come, otherwise I am stranded here at the station. And I am not sure what to do about the car. It will need to be towed using a flatbed and I am not sure where you want it to go."_

"_I'll be there in fifteen minutes. Tank is arranging a tow truck to come and pick up the car. Am I driving Lula as well?"_

"_No. She doesn't want to hang around the station. Connie is here to pick her up." _

Morelli came jogging up to the side of the car, pulling me out and giving me a hug. "I am having the guards pull the security footage of the precinct to see if we caught the slasher in action." He walked around the car and looked at the holes. He whistled. "This takes some serious rage to be able to effect that kind of damage."

Lula started easing towards Connie's car, hoping to sneak away before Morelli could nail her with questions. She was not that lucky. "Lula, I know you weren't in the station while Steph was dropping off the skip. What were you doing?"

"It was the strangest thing. I was guarding the car, and I was doing a good job of it, but I didn't see anything go down. It was like aliens shot laser beams down from the sky and hit those tires."

"Really? That's what you are going with? Aliens?"

"Yup. Aliens."

"Well, it was aliens who could write in English, as he left a note under the windshield." I held the note out to Morelli and let him read it, watching as steam came out his ears and his face turned red. He looked at his shoe and I knew he was counting to ten to try to get control of himself.

"It's just a guy blowing off steam", I said in my best pacifying tone of voice. "He isn't really going to cut me up."

Ranger drove up in his Porsche Turbo, parking beside me, and bounded out of the car. He nodded and said hi to everyone and came over to stand beside me. He gave me a quick hug and said "are you okay?"

"Yes. I am safe, Lula is safe, only your car was hurt."

"Cars don't matter. You matter." He left my side and walked around the car, looking at the tires. "You said there was a note?" Morelli handed it to him. Ranger read it and his eyes turned tight in his "not happy" look. "Did you find out if there was anything useful on the security camera footage?"

"No, I left them pulling it when I came out, and I haven't gone back in to see it yet." Lula and Connie started sidling over to Connie's car again, ready to make a getaway. "Lula thinks it was aliens, however, and Steph thinks it was just someone blowing off steam."

"I didn't say that was what I thought. I was just giving you that thought to calm you down before you give yourself a coronary. And I think Lula wants to go and I am sure Connie has to get back to the office. Do you want to ask Lula any more questions before she goes?"

"Did you see anything at all?" Morelli asked.

"No. I was guarding the car, but I must have rested my eyes for a few seconds or so and missed all the excitement."

"What good are you at guarding the car if you fall asleep?" asked Morelli in an irritated voice.

"I didn't fall asleep. I rested my eyes for a few minutes. There is a difference. Can I go now?" she asked. She added, under her breath, "Mr. Cranky-Pants."

"What did you call me?" asked Morelli.

"Mr. Cranky-Pants. And I've had enough of your cranky-pants attitude. I'm going now. Even filing is better than this." She got in the car with Connie and they quickly drove away.

"Don't you think you were a little hard on her?" I asked Morelli.

"I am not a cranky-pants."

"Well, you are doing a very good impression of one. But if it makes you feel any better, she also called me one all afternoon. I'm not sure if she will want to ride shotgun with me tomorrow."

"That's good. I don't want you to go skip chasing again until this guy is caught." He took a couple Rolaids from his pocket and popped them in his mouth.

"And if you don't catch him?"

"Then you don't go skip chasing. You stay at Rangeman doing your job where you are safe."

I bristled at him telling me what to do. "You should know by now there is nowhere safe. I am going skip tracing tomorrow, with or without Lula."

"If Lula can't or won't go," said Ranger, "I will take someone off patrol and send them out with you tomorrow. You shouldn't go alone. It just isn't safe. Remember what I taught you. You always have to have someone watching your back. Always. That holds true whether you have someone threatening you or not."

The tow truck arrived and put the Rangeman vehicle on the flatbed. Ranger made arrangements with the driver to take the car to the service station the company uses, then turned back to Morelli and me. Morelli and I were glaring at each other. "You are not telling me what to do", I said.

"Someone has to. You are a walking disaster", said Morelli.

"I do just fine without you. This is exactly why I said we need to think about where we want to go with our relationship. You don't respect me for who I am and what I can do."

"I respect you. I would just respect you a hell of a lot more alive than if you were dead. And it is my job, as both a police officer as well as your boyfriend, to make sure you stay alive."

"But we aren't boyfriend and girlfriend any more, remember? We are taking a break." I swear I could see Morelli's blood begin to boil. He walked away from Ranger and me, flapping his arms and muttering to himself. On my side, I stared down at my shoe, doing some deep breathing to ensure I didn't start to cry. I wondered how many times we would have to hurt each other before something was resolved.

Ranger put his arm around me and asked quietly "are you okay?"

I nodded my head, still looking down at my shoe. I gave a big sniff and said "damn allergies."

"What are you allergic to?" asked Ranger.

"Arguments", I replied.

* * *

We walked into the precinct, following Morelli into an interrogation room at the back of the building. He disappeared, coming in with his laptop a few minutes later. He accessed the footage and fast forwarded to when you could see me drive in and take Helena out of the vehicle and walk her to the station. You could see Lula getting herself comfortable and then nothing for a few seconds. Then you could see all the seagulls that were walking around the parking lot all take off. "What happened there?" asked Morelli.

"I don't know for sure, but I would have to guess it was Lula starting to snore. She always says she doesn't, but it is quite loud. You know Lula. She doesn't do things by halves." We watched a little further, and you could see Lundel come up and look in the window. Lula didn't make any indication she saw him. Looking around to make sure there was no one around, Lundel stabbed each of the tires. He took the paper out of his pocket and tucked it under the wiper. Then, you could see him walking nonchalantly away as I came out of the station and walked towards the car.

"You just missed him", said Morelli, dazed. "He could have killed you, right in the parking lot." He reached into his pocket and pulled out another two Rolaids.

"But he didn't. He doesn't want to kill me. He just wants a job where he can steal money again."

"But he could kill you", said Morelli. "His attempt to kidnap you the day before yesterday shows that he is not as benign as you are making him out to be. I am not sure why he has de-escalated the threat. He vandalized your apartment and car, then made a huge jump and drugged and tried to kidnap you. Now we are back to vandalizing your car. It doesn't make sense."

"No, it doesn't make sense. I don't know if this guy has a plan, or whether he is just going by the seat of his pants", said Ranger. "It seems like he starts out with vandalism and, when Steph doesn't get upset, he escalates into something more. Then, when he figures she is good and scared, he is happy with vandalism again. It is an unusual pattern that does not make sense with how we normally view criminals. The good news is we now have him on tape in one of the vandalisms as well as in the drugging and kidnapping. We will catch him. Eventually."

"In the meantime, I really would like you to stay at Rangeman, Cupcake. My instinct says this guy is dangerous", said Morelli.

"You have a hyperactive instinct", I said.

"Say what you will, but I want you staying at Rangeman."

"And I want to be able to do my job. I promise I will be careful. You would want to be able to do your job if you were in my shoes."

"But I am a cop. I am trained to deal with these sorts of things."

"No, you are really not. Otherwise you would be handling this thing much more calmly than you are. And just because you are a cop does not mean your job is more important than mine. My job plays a valuable role in society as well."

He took a deep breath and threw his hands up in the air. "I can't talk to you. We just end up arguing." He took out another couple of Rolaids, chewed them, stood up and said "I'll see you out. I need to go visit Lundel's home to see if he has shown up yet."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

Back at Rangeman, I sent a text to Lula. _"That went well. Morelli and I only argued three times. I am sorry for being a cranky-pants."_

"_No problemo. I'm getting used to it."_

"_Are you up for trying again tomorrow for the other two? I will have my own car back and should be in a better mood."_

"_Are you going to get some tonight?"_ she responded.

"_No, but I hope to have a better sleep. I can take a Rangeman staff member, but I would prefer you."_

"_Hmm. When you phrase it like that, how can I say no? See you at ten?"_

"_No. This will be an early one. Meet you at seven? We can go for the dog poop mailer guy before he goes to work, and the dog dragger afterwards. She works at a clothing store and does not start until ten o'clock."_

"_Okay. I will meet you at the office at seven."_

Arrangements made, Ranger and I walked into Rangeman and headed for the break room to grab some lunch. I selected a bowl of minestrone and a corned beef sandwich with an apple juice and a coffee. My caffeine levels were falling. I could tell because I had stopped shaking. Ranger also selected a bowl of minestrone and paired it with a salad sandwich and a vegetable juice. We went back to Ranger's office to eat our feast.

We sat quietly eating. For Ranger this was not something new. He listens well but rarely talks. This is, however, more rare with me. "Penny for your thoughts?" asked Ranger.

"I don't think they are worth that much", I answered. Ranger just waited for me as I gathered my thoughts and tried to distill them into something manageable. Then, like verbal diarrhea, they spewed forth. "I am upset about my continuing argument with Morelli. I am growing to believe the relationship is doomed. I don't think he is willing or knows how to change. However, I want to get the relationship back on an even keel so we are friends again. We seem to have lost the friendship and I miss that. And then there are the threats by Lundel. It would be annoying harassment if it weren't for the drugging and attempted kidnapping. Vandalism in itself is not that big a deal. Irritating and expensive, perhaps, but not essentially upsetting. The drugging and attempting kidnapping was the money shot. It is terrifying to me because the drugging meant I was out of control. Anything could have happened and I would not have been able to protect myself, no matter how much self-defense training I did." I paused to tip the soup bowl on its side to spoon up the last of the minestrone. "Like you and Morelli, I don't get what he is doing with the change in level of threat. It does not make sense."

"I found the drugging particularly upsetting as well", admitted Ranger, "for precisely the same reason. Anything could have happened and you would have been powerless to stop it. The vandalism is neither here nor there. Either Lundel has no plan and is following his gut, taking advantage of opportunities as they come up, or he is devious in trying to keep us off balanced. Whether he means to or not, the end result is the same. We are all off balance and are struggling a little with that. You will have to be especially cognizant when you are out with Lula tomorrow to not attract further attention to you."

"I am not sure if these are crimes of opportunity. With today, he had the note for my windshield already made up and in his pocket before he even approached the car. In the laundromat, he did not need to go out to the car to get the GHB, nor did he need to go somewhere to buy some. He was prepared for drugging me. In the case of my apartment, he had the stink fluid already in his hands when he arrived at the building. He has a plan of some sort, otherwise he would not be prepared in the way he has been."

"That's true." We were silent with our own thoughts for a moment, then Ranger said "I have half an hour free right now. Why don't we go down to the range and do some shooting. That will leave us more time to train in the gym this afternoon." We walked to the storeroom and grabbed a box of bullets, then headed down to the range. We were the only ones there. We donned our protective gear and walked into the range itself. Ranger set up the target and I aimed and fired. I shot a whole clip in. "Very good", said Ranger. "You are getting more bulls-eyes. Now this time focus on your stance." I did so, getting more bulls-eyes. "You are getting better. I am sending down a body target. Pretend it is Lundel and shoot it." I tried to, but seeing in my mind's eye Lundel's face did not help me aim for the bulls-eye. Instead, I started to shake and the body target blurred with unshed tears. I put the gun down. Ranger came over and gathered me into a hug. "Shh. It's okay. It's just a target. Nothing more than a piece of paper." He kissed me on the top of my head.

I sniffled as I got myself under control and stepped back out of his arms. "I can shoot the targets. It is when I am trying to envision it as a person I choke. Do you think I would choke if there was actually a person in front of me trying to shoot me?"

"I can't answer that. Tomorrow I will plan a field trip for us. We will go to the laser tag facility and practice shooting someone in a real-life setting. I think that may help answer your question. It will definitely help you practice hitting living targets."

"I really don't want to practice real-life shooting, even if it is in a play scenario."

"I know. But for your own safety you need to move past this fear of shooting someone." He handed my gun back to me. "Try one more clip and then we will head back upstairs."

I gamely tried another clip. I was able to shoot the whole clip this time, but my accuracy was terrible and I could not hit another bulls-eye.

* * *

I researched companies and individuals for the Operations and Sales departments that afternoon. Hal came over to my desk and dropped my keys for my car on it. "Your car is back", he said. "I washed it for you as well."

"Thanks, Hal."

"Ranger asked if I wanted to come play laser tag with you tomorrow afternoon. He is getting a bunch of the guys together to give you lots of people to aim at. He does this every couple of months or so for our own target practice. He books the whole facility for an hour and all the staff who are off shift show up. It is lots of fun. We are all looking forward to it."

Oh goody.

I put my keys in my purse and turned back to the searches. I finished the searches for Operations and started on the searches for Sales. I could not settle down to doing more searches, however. I was antsy. My brain was too crowded with unwelcome thoughts. In anticipation of doing further training in the gym, I went up to Ranger's apartment to change into workout gear. I dropped off my gun and purse at the same time, and took off my oversized shirt and put on a tight workout top. I felt it would be better for me to wear a proper workout top rather than the sports bra I had been wearing on the mats. Although I didn't have a problem wearing a sports bra in front of the guys – after all, it is less revealing than a bikini – I thought it would be better for Ranger's blood pressure to wear a full workout top when all his guys were gawking at me. I teamed the workout top with a pair of T&amp;A shorts, and put a pair of Ranger's sweatpants and hoody overtop. I rolled up the waistband on his pants and rolled up the sleeves on his hoody. I was ready to work out.

I still had half an hour before I was supposed to meet Ranger at his office, so I went onto his computer to search Lundel again. I was hoping to find some clue as to where he might be. Redoing all of the searches I had done a few days ago, I found that there were a number of new charges to his credit cards, mainly to his low limit credit card that I assumed he kept for internet use. I looked at the charges. Most of them were for porn sites. Classy guy.

I copied the information into an email for Morelli and continued searching. I looked up property searches for his parents, his brother and his wife. I put all that information in as well. Then I pulled up property searches on his middle name and found four more locations he possibly owned. I included all that in the email as well. I then sent the email over to Morelli and went down to meet Ranger in his office.

He smiled as I entered and sat in front of his desk. "I like seeing my clothes on you, Babe."

"That's great, but they won't be on for long. I have workout clothes underneath. I thought, with the guys in the gym, you would prefer if I actually wore real workout clothes rather than stripping down to my bra."

"My blood pressure thanks you." He stood up and gave me an extended kiss. He sucked my top lip into his mouth and bit it slightly and sucked it some more to soothe the sting. I whimpered as my abdomen muscles contracted and … oh boy … I didn't know you could do that with a kiss.

Boneless, I would have sunk to the ground if Ranger had not been holding me up. "Wow!" I said, dazed.

Ranger smiled one of his half smiles and kissed me lightly on the lips. "Now that you are relaxed, let's go do some training."

"Wow!" I repeated.

Ranger took me by the hand and led me from the room down to the gym. I was still slightly dazed when we got to the gym, but after having a cold sip of water and holding the bottle against my hot face for a moment or two, I bounced back. Looking around, I noticed there were many more men in the gym today than there was yesterday.

I took off Ranger's sweats and I could hear the collective intake of breath of the guys in the gym. I looked at Ranger and saw that his eyes had gone dark with desire. He was holding himself a little awkwardly. "I think it was better for my blood pressure when you were wearing a sports bra and full pants, Babe." He scrambled the feed on the security cameras and announced to everyone that he was closing the gym down for the next two hours.

There were collective good-natured grumblings, but the men left the floor. A few men risked Ranger's wrath and looked through the windows at me. Ranger went over to the door and called the men over. He spoke quietly to them for a moment, and the men quickly walked away. He then closed and locked the door. "I'll have to put up blinds on the observation windows from the hall to the gym. This is ridiculous." He smiled. "But I love your outfit. I just don't want the guys to love it as well."

"I honestly thought this would be better than what I had been wearing."

"Are you kidding? Your legs go a mile high in those shorts, and the fact that your shorts and shirt are as tight as a second skin … now it is my turn to say 'wow'. For my blood pressure's sake, it might be better to not wear that outfit again in the gym."

Good to know.

Ranger led me through the series of stretches. My lack of flexibility meant I was unable to touch my toes or do any of the other stretches well. Ranger helped me extend the stretches, but I was still unable to touch my toes.

"Don't worry. With practice you will be able to touch your toes."

"I don't know. I think the problem is that my legs are too long and my arms are too short. This may be the only time in my life when I wished I was built like a chimpanzee."

We then started self-defense moves from a variety of different approaches. By the end I was hot and sweaty, Ranger was not, and although I was frustrated I was able to get out of half of the holds. This was a big improvement. A month ago I would not have been able to get out of any of them.

"See, Babe, you don't have to like self-defense training. However, you do have to know the moves. It is important for you as a bounty hunter. Tomorrow we are meeting at the laser tag facility at four o'clock to play with the guys. I will do it again the morning of the day after tomorrow to accommodate those guys who are having to miss it because they are working tomorrow. I expect you to be at both training sessions."

"Aye-aye, captain."

"I do this every couple of months with the guys to get them used to hitting moving targets. It is a lot of fun. We will step it up a notch and take earpieces for you and me, and then I will be able to give you pointers as you target the guys. That will be our secret, however. We don't want the guys to know we have an unfair advantage."

We cleaned up after ourselves, unscrambled the feed, and unlocked the door to the gym. There were no guys there peeping at us. I commented on it and Ranger smiled. "I told the guys that the next person I found peeping at you would be fired. I was serious and they knew it."

Oh.

* * *

We took the elevator to the apartment. I thought I would have a bath instead of a shower, and ran the hot water. Ranger has this great Jacuzzi bath that I rarely use. I should use it more. It is a really great tub. Nice and deep, large enough for two. I don't think Ranger has ever used it.

Deciding I had enough water, I shucked my clothes and stepped into the hot water. I sunk down in the water, totally immersing myself. I washed my hair and immersed myself in the water again, rinsing the soap off. Turning on the jets, I then just lay in the tub with my eyes closed. A few minutes later I heard a whispered "are you asleep?"

Keeping my eyes closed, I said "no, just relaxed." I felt the water level rise and it wave side to side as Ranger got in the tub with me. He sat down at the other end, but not before I was able to open my eyes and get a good look at the proof that he found the whole bath thing wildly erotic. He lifted my feet into his lap and proceeded to massage them. I groaned with pleasure and reached back to his own feet and returned the favour. We lay there in the cooling water together, massaging each other's feet. I was getting turned on and I knew that Ranger already was. Then Ranger shifted so that he lay on top of me and … oh boy.

After cleaning up all the water we spilled on the floor, we headed into the bedroom to have a nap before dinner. The hot water – and activity – relaxed me in a way that I had not been relaxed in a very long time. I was not going to be in danger of being a cranky-pants tomorrow. It was naked napping, and we did not get much sleeping done. We took our time.

I always forget how good Ranger is in bed. I am used to Morelli. He was the talk of the neighbourhood when I was growing up. His prowess was well known and I know from experience his reputation was deserved. Ranger, however, is better.

By the end of our naked napping I was almost asleep. Ranger gathered me into a spoon position, moved aside my hair so it would not tickle his nose, and cuddled me until I fell asleep.

Ranger let me sleep through dinner. I did not wake up until five the next morning when Ranger's watch alarm went off.

"What time is it?" I asked sleepily. I do not normally wake easily, no matter how much sleep I get. I have been known to throw alarm clocks across the room in a sleep-stupefied effort to get them to stop their infernal buzzing.

"Five o'clock. Go back to sleep."

"Five in the morning? I slept through dinner?"

"I let you. I thought you could use the sleep since you haven't been sleeping well for a while."

"Thanks. Are you getting up for the day?" I asked.

"I was going to have a workout", he answered.

"Okay", I yawned. "I'll see you when you get back." I rolled over and closed my eyes. However, I could not go back to sleep. I tossed and turned. I guessed twelve hours of sleep was enough. I got up and put on Ranger's housecoat, getting turned on by the smell of Bulgari Green. It brought back memories of the night before, and I started getting excited again. I walked into the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee, then walked to the bathroom to have a shower.

When I got out of the shower, Ranger was waiting with a cup of coffee for me. "Ella will be up in half an hour with our breakfast."

My immediate thought was that this gave Ranger five minutes to shower and another twenty-five to follow up on what we had started last night. However, I was more confused than ever. The truth is that I love Ranger. But I also love Morelli. If I had to pick one of the two, it would probably be Ranger. The problem is that Ranger's choice is between me and atoning for his past, and I am not sure I would win in that competition. I don't know what is in his past he has to atone for. Ranger is very quiet and shares little about his private life. I just know there is a big portion of himself he does not share with me. I don't know if he shares it with anyone. He has his secrets and guards them closely.

I could see Ranger was also thinking of a five minute shower. His eyes had dilated to black with desire and his groin was looking a little more engorged that it had been just a few minutes before. "How fast can you shower?" I asked.

"Depends. Is this solo showering?"

"I could use another shower", I said. I dropped the housecoat on the ground and turned around to run the water. Ranger made a choking sound and quickly shucked his clothes. He got in the shower spray behind me. Now here is the thing. Ranger's shower is pretty fantastic. It is large enough for two with room left over for maneuvering, and has a rainfall showerhead as well as several wall mount showerheads. We used every inch of the allotted space.

By the time we finished we were feeling very relaxed. We dried each other off and I put on Ranger's housecoat again. Ranger smiled. "Isn't this where we started, Babe?" He pulled me by the belt over to him and kissed me deeply. We heard Ella come in the apartment and drop off breakfast, calling out to us as she wished us a good day as she left.

Ranger shaved as I sat on the bench and watched him. I love watching Ranger shave. Morelli uses an electric shaver, and it is boring and noisy to watch. But Ranger used a safety razor and good smelling soap. He shaves his face, then finishes with aftershave. It leaves a much smoother skin that smells amazing. I like him unshaven as well, but I like him clean shaven too.

When he finished shaving, he walked to the closet and started to get dressed. "I have to get going, Babe. But if you keep looking at me like that I won't be getting anything done today."

I forgot – I also had things I had to do today. Coming out of my orgasmic amnesia, I remembered I had a seven o'clock meeting with Lula. I looked at the time. Six thirty. Just enough time to shove in a quick breakfast, get dressed, and make it to the bonds office. I hurriedly got dressed and joined Ranger at the table as he was taking our breakfast off the tray.

"What do you have up for today?" asked Ranger.

I told him about the dog poop mailer and about the dog dragger. "Working around this are some files to research, and of course the laser tag this afternoon at four. What about you?"

"I have a client who needs security work organized. I will be spending my morning in my office looking at blueprints. I think Sales has a new file for me to work on this afternoon."

I finished my scrambled eggs and toast and downed the remainder of my coffee. "I have to go. I am late." I rushed into the bathroom and brushed my teeth. Grabbing my bag on the way to the door, I ran over to Ranger and sat on his lap. I pulled him into a prolonged kiss.

"I thought you said you had to go?" Ranger said as he laughed.

"Some things are just too good to rush", I said.

Ranger kissed my nose and lightly slapped my butt. "Get going. You will be late."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen **

I made it on time to pick up Lula. She was only five minutes late, which was ten minutes before I expected her. I made it a policy a long time ago to ask Lula to show up fifteen minutes before I need her as she is always late. She parked her car in the bonds office parking lot and hurried over to my car. "Your car looks good. Did someone wash it?"

"Yeah. The service station cleaned the car on the outside, and Hal detailed the inside when he picked it up yesterday. They have that washing bay in the underground lot at Rangeman, and Hal did a good job. It looks great, doesn't it?"

"It's the best that I have ever seen it. They were even able to take the rust off."

"No, that is courtesy of Ranger. When it was taken in for new tires he had some bodywork done on the car at the same time. He said it was for pain and suffering from what Lundel has put me through."

"This is like a full service job. The perks are great." From where I was sitting, though, the perks didn't look so good. It was one thing to replace my tires. I can see why Rangeman felt a need to do so. However, it is another thing to do the bodywork on the car. I called Ranger while I waited for Lula, and he said I was representing Rangeman and needed to have a car that wasn't falling apart. It made me feel kind of icky though. It went against my need to be independent.

"Are you a cranky-pants again today?" asked Lula.

"Nope. No cranky-pants here today." I smiled.

"It's about time. Ranger or Morelli?"

"Ranger."

"I should have known. Morelli puts a satisfied smile and a glow on your face. Ranger puts a smile on your face that makes you the envy of every woman around. You are more relaxed after Ranger as well." Hunh. Something to think about. "Let's go get this loser", said Lula.

I drove into the Burg. The traffic was light but building due to the hour. I tried to see if I had a tail but could not see any suspicious cars. I drove to Victor Wu's house, parking in front. We sat in the car a moment. The neighbourhood was much like my parents'. Semi-detached houses and largish trees lining the street, cracked sidewalks decorated with kids' drawings in chalk, cheery flowers in small gardens. Wu's house was the right half of a red brick house decorated with green shutters and door. The house was still decorated for Christmas despite the fact that it was now May. We walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. After a few minutes we rang the doorbell again. We looked to the driveway and saw a car there. We went to the windows and peered inside. We could see straight through to his kitchen. Wu was sitting at the table, listening to tunes with his earphones on, eating breakfast. I rang the doorbell again. No answer.

"Stay here", I said. "I will try the back door." I left Lula at the front ringing the doorbell and walked around the back to the kitchen door. I tried the door and was lucky. It opened. I walked in the house, holding my badge in the air as I said "bond enforcement". I put my badge away and reached into my bag for a set of cuffs.

Wu was a tiny man, short and slight in stature. He jumped up, still not coming to my eye level. "I'm not going in. I did not do anything wrong."

"See, here's the thing. I agree with you. Dogs should not be pooping on your lawn and leaving the mess". I tried not to think of the number of times I did exactly that when I was walking Bob. This is one of those reasons I don't think I make a good dog owner. I don't like carrying a full bag of poop with me. "I am sure the judge will also see it that way. However, you need to tell the judge what happened and why you did what you did in order to have your charges dropped. Until you do so, you are a wanted felon and it is my job to bring you in." Lula rang the doorbell again. I yelled at her to come around the back. She rang the doorbell again over the sounds of my yelling.

"Oh. But the charges are bogus."

"That may be, but you have to tell that to the judge and let him or her decide whether the charges should be dropped. You cannot decide that for yourself. And I have to tell you, the longer you skip bail, the worse it will look for you." What the heck. I had used that line on Helena and it had seemed to work.

"I have to go to work. I have a big day planned."

"I am sorry to hear that. I can have Connie waiting at the police station ready to bond you out again so you can get on with your day. However, you do need to go in and you need to go in now." Lula rang the doorbell again.

"Lula, come around to the back. The door is unlocked", I shouted out.

A few minutes later Lula popped her head in the door. She looked at Wu. "Aren't you the cutest little thing", she said. "I could just eat you up."

Wu swallowed audibly. "I have to change out of my housecoat", he said. He was wearing a Spongebob Squarepants housecoat and Bart Simpson slippers.

"Sure", I said. "We will wait down here for you." We watched him walk up the stairs and into the bedroom. We heard him rustling around. "Stay here", I whispered. I went outside and waited in the backyard. Sure enough, a few minutes later an emergency ladder was thrown out the window and Wu backed himself out the window and down the ladder. He put one foot on the ground and I crept up on him, snapped a cuff around his wrist, grabbed his other hand, and snapped the cuff on his other wrist while I still had the element of surprise. "Gotcha", I whispered in his ear. I walked him to the door of the house. "Got him", I called out to Lula. "There is a ladder out the bedroom window that needs to be brought in before the windows are all shut and the house locked up. I saw his keys and wallet on the front hall table. I will take him out to the car."

I started towards the car, stopping in the shadows when I saw a dog owner and his dog stop on Wu's front lawn. The dog hunched over. "Shh", I cautioned Wu. I got out my phone and started taking a video of the dog pooping and the man leading the dog away. I waited until the man was out of range, then said to Wu "let me guess, that is the man you mailed the poop to."

"Yes. He has become more brazen about leaving the poop since I was arrested. He knows I cannot do anything about it now."

"We've got him now. We will report him when we go to the police station in a few minutes." I waited until there was no one on the street who could see Wu taken away in handcuffs, and led him to the car. I sat him inside and put his seatbelt on.

By the time I was finished Lula had locked up the house and was walking to the car. She paused at the pile of dog doo doo that had been left on the lawn. "Disgustin'", she said. Shaking her head she got in the car.

"I got a video of the man not picking it up. I will show it to the police when we get there so I might be a few minutes." I drove Lula to the bonds office, dropping her off with the arrangement that I would pick her up after taking care of Wu.

I parked the car in the precinct parking lot and walked Wu into the station. After securing him to the bench and retrieving my cuffs, I got my body receipt and headed for the main doors. Meeting the officer on duty, a Leanne Gonzales, I explained the situation to her. I took the video clip of the man and his dog and sent it to her email address. After filling out the paperwork, I left the building happy with my day. After all, we had caught our skip, we had made a formal complaint which will help Wu when he finally does go to court, and I had been able to avoid Morelli. All in all, a good morning.

* * *

I drove back to the bonds office and met up with Lula and Connie. I helped myself to a coffee and sat down on the couch in front of Connie's desk. I often think of this as Lula's couch, as this is where you will generally find her when she is in the office. She is often stretched out reading magazines, talking on her phone, or periodically even sleeping. What she is generally not doing is filing. She has to be the worst file clerk ever. Luckily we have mostly gone digital. Vinnie took an old clunker of a computer out of the collateral lock up for Lula to use. It was hardwired into the internal network so Lula could use it for electronic filing. I don't think I have ever seen Lula use it for anything other than Solitaire and looking up her online horoscopes though.

"You know what we need? We need a doughnut to celebrate our capture."

"I definitely don't need a doughnut", I said. "I tried on my jeans again this morning, and I still could not do up my top button."

"That's your problem. That is why I always wear stretch clothes. Then I don't have to worry about no damn buttons. Now me, I need a doughnut." I thought she wore stretch clothes because that is the only way she would be able to fit her large size body into her petite size wardrobe. Looking at her I often am partially waiting for the lycra to snap and the clothes to tear in a Hulk-like fashion.

Lula and I drove to the Tasty Pastry and parked in the side parking lot. We went into the bakery and smelled the happy endorphin-releasing smells. "Now tell me you don't need a doughnut", she said.

"I don't need a doughnut and I am going outside to wait for you just so I don't succumb", I said.

Marianne, behind the counter, said "I was like that when I was expecting my first as well. Don't worry, Steph, morning sickness only lasts three or four months."

"I'M NOT PREGNANT!" I said, looking down at my stomach in dismay. "I've just eaten too many doughnuts."

"And everything else", added Lula helpfully.

"Yeah, and everything else", I agreed dejectedly. "I will wait for you outside", I said to Lula.

I walked outside the bakery, scrolling through my messages on my phone. My mother phoned, my friend Mary Lou called, and my sister called. I would call them all back this afternoon. I was in the process of putting my phone back in my purse when I was yanked backwards from behind and a knife was placed at my throat. "Lundel?" I asked.

"Yes. You are not doing what you are supposed to. I asked you to do a simple task when I vandalized your apartment and you failed to do it. I tried to scare the pants off you by drugging you and kidnapping you, yet you still failed to do it. So I followed you yesterday and tried to scare you again. Yet you still failed to do it. So now I will hold a knife to your throat until you call Jay Technologies and get them to hire me."

I shifted slightly and felt the knife dig into my throat. "You know they won't listen to me, right? I wasn't the one who made the recommendation to Jay. I just did the research. Any rescinding of that recommendation would have to be done by someone else."

"They will listen to you. You can call the person at Rangeman who made the recommendation and get them to rescind it."

"I can do that. Let me get my phone."

"You can use my phone."

"I could, but my phone has the person I need to talk to on speed dial. I don't know his number off by heart." That was a lie. I knew Ranger's number. I just didn't want to put the number in Lundel's caller memory.

I slowly took out my phone, feel a prick in my throat as my hand neared my gun. Thinking quickly, I phoned Ranger. "Hi, Ranger. I am at the Tasty Pastry right now, and Lundel is right behind me with a knife to my throat asking you to rescind the recommendation to Jay Technologies."

"Are you okay?"

"So far."

"Let me talk to him." I passed the phone over to Lundel.

As I did so, Lula came around the corner of the bakery with a large doughnut box in her hand, picking her way over the broken pavement. "Yoo hoo, Steph! I know you did not want any doughnuts so I only bought you one." She looked up from where she was standing and her eyes grew wide. "Holy shit. What is happening? Police! Help!" She started running around in circles.

It worked well as a diversion. I bucked and fought, just like Ranger had taught me, hissing out a breath of pain as his knife dragged across my neck. I tried to disarm him, but he knocked me to the ground, slicing open my arm on the way down. As I reached the pavement, he kicked me hard in the ribs, yelling that I had not seen the last of him, and took off for the back of the building. I could hear a car start and leave through the back exit. I slowly sat up as Lula got off the phone. "Take it easy, Steph. I called everybody. There will be help here soon."

I reached for my phone, picking up to talk to a frantic Ranger. "Sit rep", he barked out.

"I'm okay, just cut. I let him get away. I'm sorry."

"You are still alive and that is all that matters. I just heard the call go out on the scanner, so you should have everybody there in a few minutes. I will be there in about two."

"When you said you called everybody, who exactly did you call?" I asked Lula suspiciously.

"Morelli, Ranger, Rangeman, 911. Everybody."

Fuck. I would have to see Morelli again.

"Wouldn't you know it? The one time when you actually want a policeman at a doughnut shop you can't find one. Usually they hang around in droves", said Lula.

Ranger tore into the parking lot, parking haphazardly beside where I was still sitting on the ground. His face turned white as he ran up to me and looked at the cut on my neck. "I'm okay. Can you help me up?"

"No, the ambulance will be here soon. I think you should stay down there until it arrives."

"I just need some stitches in my arm and I think my ribs are bruised."

"You evidently haven't seen your neck yet."

"No, but it burns a bit. It could have been much worse."

"What happened?"

"I came out of the Tasty Pastry and was attacked from behind. Lundel held a knife to my throat and told me that I had to rescind the recommendation. I told him that would have to come from you. I called you. When I passed the phone over to Lundel so that you could talk to him, Lula came out of the building and created a great diversion. I used all those self-defense lessons and fought back. I tried to disarm him but was unsuccessful. He scraped his knife across my neck, cut my arm and kicked my ribs before he ran away. His car was parked behind the bakery and he got away through the back exit." The ambulance came racing in and parked behind Ranger's car. The paramedics ran over to me. "It looks worse, apparently, than it really is."

Morelli came running up through the gathering throng in the parking lot. "I will never live this one down in Burg history", I muttered to Ranger.

Morelli turned white when he saw me. "It's you. It's not your job, it's just you. You collect catastrophes like some women collect diamonds and jewelry. You cannot keep doing this." The paramedics helped me to my feet. Morelli saw my wince as I moved and his brows came down in a frown. "One day I will be called out and you won't be hurt. You will be dead."

"You sound like my mother." The paramedics escorted me over to the ambulance and sat me inside. "Aren't you going to ask me what happened?"

"Okay, what happened?"

"It was Lundel. I was walking around the building looking at my messages on my phone when he attacked me from behind. He jumped me. When Lula created this great diversion, we fought and he tagged me with the knife. He kicked me in the ribs before he got away. That's it."

"See, you collect catastrophes. You are working at Rangeman now. That is supposed to be the safe place to work."

"There are no safe places to work." The paramedics had finished field bandaging my arm and were cleaning off the cut on my neck. I sucked in some air at the sting. I looked at Morelli, red in face in his anger, and Ranger behind him, acting like a rock. "Can you call my mother and let her know I am okay? It will only take a few minutes for this to get to her and she will be ironing all afternoon if you don't call. She will probably iron all afternoon anyway, but at least she will be a little less worried." My mother uses ironing to tranquillize herself much in the same way I use food.

"I would suggest you go to the hospital", said one of the paramedics. "Your cut on your arm needs sutures and you should have your ribs x-rayed. Do you want to go in the ambulance?"

"No, I'm good, thanks. I can drive."

"You are not driving!" bit out Morelli.

"I'll take her", said Ranger. "Lula can drive Stephanie's car."

I took my keys and gave them to Lula. "If you drive to the bonds office, I will pick up my car there later this afternoon." She took the keys. Making sure I didn't need her any more, she got out of there before the profusion of police officers upset her even more.

I turned and looked at Ranger and Morelli. "Who will drive me to the hospital?" I asked.

"I have to stay here for a few minutes and do my cop thing", said Morelli. He turned to Ranger. "Can you take her?"

"Yes." He signed the paperwork for the ambulance releasing me into his care, and helped me down from the back of the ambulance. I turned white as I moved my ribs.

"Don't forget to call my mother", I reminded Morelli.

"I'm not calling her. Call your own damn mother."

"You shouldn't swear when you are talking about mothers. You can go to hell for that", I said.

"I am already there", Morelli answered.

The ambulance left the scene, followed by Ranger and me. On the way to the hospital I called my mother. "Hi, Mom." My mom was in tears.

"Steph? I heard you died.

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear. I am not dead. I am not even close to being dead. I have a cut arm that needs sutures, and what I think are bruised ribs but which will get x-rayed to make sure they aren't broken, and a scratch across my throat. No big deal, but I am calling because I promised I would try to call when something happens."

"I heard your head was cut almost completely off."

"I just got a little scratch, Mom. They won't even stitch it because it really is nothing. It hurt more when they put the antiseptic on it than it did when it was happening. My head is definitely still attached."

"As long as you are all right. Do you want to come for dinner? You could bring Joseph."

"Mom, you know Joe and I aren't together any more. And I don't want to come for dinner tonight. I am not sure what time I will get finished at the hospital. It depends upon how many emergencies come in. I will come another night for dinner, all right?" When I got her agreement, I told her I had to hang up as we were almost at the hospital. "I never thought I would be as happy to get to the hospital as I was to have an excuse to get out of that conversation", I complained to Ranger. He just smiled.

He parked the car and we walked slowly into Emergency together. "How bad do your ribs hurt?" he asked.

"Pretty bad. They must have been badly bruised."

"Or cracked. I could hear the kick over the phone as I was driving."

"That must have been scary to hear and not be able to do anything about it."

"It was. It sounded like you put up a pretty good fight."

"I am actually proud of myself. A month ago I would have frozen in fear, not knowing what to do. Sure, I got cut but it could have been so much worse. I think Lundel intended for it to be so much worse. He is unhinged."

We made it to the Triage area. Lorna Cruikshank looked after me. I had not seen Lorna since we were in high school together but I had heard about her three kids often from my mother and grandmother. She looked at the cuts. "You will definitely need to see the doctor and I suspect she will order x-rays. You are lucky. We are slow right now and it should not take long for the doctor to see you. She sent me back to the green area where I was assigned a cubicle. I carefully laid down on the stretcher.

"So tell me about the rest of your day", said Ranger.

"Lula and I picked up a skip this morning. He was the dog poop mailer. As we were leaving his house, the man with the dog left a huge deposit on the skip's lawn. I filmed the whole thing on my phone. When I dropped Wu off at the station, I took the video in at the same time. The man will now be arrested for public mischief and breaking a town by-law. Wu just wants the harassment to stop. I don't blame him. It was a rather large dog and you know what they say. The larger the dog, the larger the poops. I had just picked up Lula and, after she got some doughnuts, we were going after Renee. How was your morning?"

"Uneventful up until you called", Ranger replied.

"I am thinking uneventful is good?"

"Uneventful is very good."

Dr. Jettson walked into the cubicle. "You again? Did you miss us?" She looked at Ranger and smiled, then turned back to me, all business again. "How are you feeling from the GHB?"

"Totally recovered from that", I said. "But now I have another problem. The guy who drugged me caught up to me again today and cut my arm, my neck, and hurt my ribs. So here I am, back again."

"Let's take off your top and see what we have." She helped me take off my hoody and t-shirt. She had me lie back down on the stretcher and felt all around the ribs area. "I want to have that x-rayed. I suspect you have one or more cracked ribs, but I want to see the x-rays before I say for sure. I will suture this cut first, and will clean the cut on your neck. I'll be back in a minute with the suture kit and the antiseptic." She left the cubicle for a few minutes.

"She's into you", I whispered to Ranger.

He shrugged his shoulders. "There is only one woman I am interested in and it isn't the doctor."

Something to think about.

The doctor was in the middle of suturing the cut when Morelli badged his way in. Immediately my body tensed, ready for battle. "Have you finished doing all the cop stuff?" I asked.

"For now. What were you thinking, not looking where you were going? What were you thinking looking down at your phone, not being aware of your surroundings? You know better than that, especially when there is someone out there who may want you dead. You have to be more careful, Cupcake. You cannot take risks like that."

"I was in front of the Tasty Pastry. The only dangerous thing in the Tasty Pastry I ever encountered before was you." And it was true. I had worked my way through high school at the Tasty Pastry, and gave my virginity to Morelli behind the pastry counter one night when I was sixteen. "Besides, as Lula said, that was probably the only time I have been to the Tasty Pastry when there hasn't been a cop there."

"I like the cannoli there", interjected Dr. Jettson.

"I know. Isn't their cannoli the best?" I said with a smile.

"Fuck the cannoli. You have to be more careful, Cupcake. Next time he might get lucky."

"Won't you at least give me credit for my awesome self-defense moves?"

"I would be more amazed if you hadn't ended up cut and bleeding, if I hadn't had to run up and see blood pouring down you neck. From where I am standing, your self-defense skills weren't really impressive."

I looked at him for a few moments. "Lula is right. You are a cranky-pants."

"Maybe I am. But I am a cranky-pants with a reason. You have to look at it from my side. You would be a cranky-pants, too, if you just lived through what I lived through this morning. I am sorry. I am trying to be understanding. I am trying not to yell. But it is so hard when I was so scared. You tie me up in knots and turn me inside out until I barely know if I am coming or going. I love you."

"Thank you for trying not to yell. You are partially succeeding", I said with a conciliatory smile.

Dr. Jettson finished putting in her sutures. "All done", she said. "I will now send you down to x-ray for your ribs. I will see you back here in a few minutes. Take a wheelchair", she cautioned as I attempted to hop off the stretcher. Ranger went out into the hall to find a wheelchair.

"What is it with you and Ranger?"

"He is my protector. He always has been."

"I want to be your protector."

"You don't have the right attitude for it, Joe. You worry too much and you get too upset when things go wrong."

"And Mr. Cool in the Face of Danger doesn't."

"No, he doesn't."

"Then he is a better man than me."

"No, you are a good man. You just may not be the best man for me. You are fun and I love you, but you are a round peg and I am a square hole. You fit in my hole, no sexual innuendos intended, but you aren't a perfect fit. I cannot live with you trying to control my life. You yelling at me when I shot Pete Brodie a few weeks ago, even you yelling at me today, shows me we are not a match. Both times I needed support from you, and both times you got angry at me instead. We have tried and tried, but you want me to become a round hole and I cannot do it. I am what I am and at this point I am not willing to change. I'm sorry."

"Is Ranger a square peg?"

"I don't know. We haven't tried."

"That's it?"

"That's it for now. You have said too many things in the past which are hurtful and I cannot forget them the way I would need to if we were to get back together. We have had some pretty brutal arguments in the past but the one after I shot Brodie was the worst."

"I'm hurting. I wish I had not said anything."

"I'm hurting, too."

"Is there any hope for us?"

"Not right now. I cannot talk about the future. I am still taking one day at a time."

"Call me if you need anything, or if you want to give me a chance to try to become a square peg."

"I'll keep that in mind." Joe left, brushing past Ranger as he arrived with the wheelchair.

Ranger walked in. "Everything okay in here? Morelli looked awfully upset."

"Just peachy", I sighed. Ranger wheeled me down to x-ray. Following x-rays I returned to the cubicle to find out that I did have a hairline fracture on one of my ribs. "Just great. This day started so promisingly", I said, disgusted.

"I have to call it in to Morelli", said Ranger.

"Okay. Can you talk to him?"

"Yes. Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"Nope. Not at all." He wheeled me out to the doors and, putting his hand on the small of my back, escorted me the rest of the way to the car.

"I am sending Hal to pick up your car. Do you have a body receipt for him to take in?"

"Yes, I do. I keep hoping the bonds office will join the twenty-first century and implement direct deposit. It makes so much more sense than using cheques."

"We will hand off your body receipt when we get to Rangeman. Then you may want to take one of the pain pills the doctor gave you and have a nap. I have to say, I know you didn't want to go to the laser tag facility, but this is a sneaky way of getting out of it." He smiled.

"Smart ass", I muttered.

* * *

Getting to the office, I went to the break room to grab a crab salad sandwich, a yogurt parfait, and a small salad with low fat ranch dressing. I sighed. I wanted the full fat thousand island one, but it was nowhere to be found. I poured myself coffee and grabbed an orange juice. Sitting down carefully, I tried not to jostle my ribs. Hal came into the break room to grab some lunch.

"Hey, Steph, I heard you had some excitement this morning."

"You could phrase it like that. You know the truth, don't you?" I said, lowering my voice.

"No, what?"

"I didn't want to get creamed in laser tag today. Ranger said this was a good enough excuse to get out of it." I smiled at Hal's look of surprise. He had thought he would get some real dirt. "Gotcha", I said with a laugh.

Hal started laughing. "Yes, you did. Do you really not want to play laser tag, though? It is a lot of fun. It is only Rangeman staff there, so you don't have to worry about anyone breaking the rules. Ranger sets it up like a real firefight but keeping it honourable. No shooting in the face or your bits. Only in the torso. Kill shots are preferred. If you want to work in teams, that is acceptable. So is working solo. Ranger suggests we work both solo as well as in partners at some point in the game."

"I am having a hard time overcoming my upset in shooting someone, even if it is with a laser in a game. I can shoot somewhat decently in the range when we are using the circle targets. But when the targets are the body targets, I lose it and am having problems getting past the fact that the targets are representing a person. Brodie is too fresh in my mind. Ranger had thought laser tag would help me past some of that. To tell you the truth, I am nervous about it. I am unhappy I fractured my rib and cut my arm, but I am not unhappy to be missing laser tag."

"You would probably be paired with Ranger anyway. We would not stand a chance beating you. Ranger is the best at the game. Tank is second best."

I handed my body receipt to Hal and thanked him for detailing my car the other day, and picking it up today. As Hal left the room to join Eduardo for a ride to the bonds office, I headed up to the apartment. I went to the kitchen and took a pain pill then went to flop on the couch, or as much as my injuries would let me flop. I took out my phone and sent a text to Lula telling her that Hal was coming in with my body receipt and would be picking up my car. I told her about my injuries and said that I would catch up with her in a couple of days. By the time I finished writing the text the pain pills were hitting me. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen **

Three hours later, Ranger kissed me awake. He smiled at me as I came to. "You scared Ella. She came in and saw you lying here, and she thought something had happened to you. She couldn't wake you up, so she came and got me. I told her I knew how to wake you." As I woke up more fully I realized where his hand was, and what he meant by saying he knew how to wake me up. He was right. There were parts of me waking up more than others. I sighed and Ranger laughed. "Come on", he said, helping me to my feet, "let's go reassure Ella. She is in the kitchen."

When Ranger guided me into the kitchen, I found that Ella had started a fresh pot of coffee. The aroma was heady, and reminded me of the sexy morning Ranger and I had enjoyed. I looked at Ranger and, seeing his knowing gaze upon me, I blushed. I turned to Ella. "I am sorry for upsetting you. I am fine, just sore, and I took a pain pill to help with the discomfort in my ribs. I should only need them for the first day or two, thankfully. They knock me out. I don't like taking them."

"I'm just glad you are okay. As the only other female staff member, we have to stick together." She smiled at me and went to the fridge to pull out a couple of pieces of chocolate cake, and then turned to the freezer and pulled out a small tub of Haagen Daas butterscotch ripple. "I thought we could take a break together."

My eyes lit up and a smile stretched across my face. Ranger laughed, shook his head, then came over and gave me a kiss. "I will be gone for a couple of hours. If you need anything, call Tank. I will be teaching my staff a lesson at the laser tag facility."

"Go show them how it's done", I said as he walked smilingly towards the door.

I listened for the door closing, then turned to Ella. "How did you know I am going into dessert withdrawal?"

"Ranger asked me to buy a couple of chocolate bars for you. I put them in the cupboard next to your peanut butter." Peanut butter for me is a staple, and one of the previous times I used his apartment as a safe house I brought my own peanut butter. Just like I have my own drawer in his bathroom, I also have my own shelf in one of his kitchen cupboards. It felt like I was slowly moving into Ranger's space. I don't know what Ranger thought about all this, but I was surprisingly okay with it. "I knew if Ranger was giving in to providing you with chocolate, you probably needed it. And when you were accosted today, I figured you could use a little lift. Do you want ice cream with your cake?"

"Is the Pope Catholic?" I smiled as Ella handed me a piece of cake with a large scoop of ice cream.

Ella put the leftover ice cream back in the freezer. "I will leave that here for a midnight snack." She sat down at the table. "I can't believe Ranger bought you chocolate. I used to make cookies for the boys in the break room, but Ranger banned me from making any more because he said the boys were getting fat."

"I am surprised as well. I am a stress eater. I have been having a hard time since I shot Brodie, and I have gained so much weight in the last month I am now unable to button any of my jeans or fatigues. I can only fit in my yoga pants and sweats. It's been good going on, but I will pay having it come off again. Don't tell Ranger this, but I was actually kind of enjoying the self-defense lessons so that I can work some of the weight off. I felt like I was doing something good for myself. If you ever tell Ranger I said that, though, I will adamantly deny it", I said with a laugh. "Now, because of this stupid rib and arm, I won't be able to train for a few weeks."

"When you first started here a month ago, you weren't sure you would stay. Do you think you will stay now?"

"For the next little while, for sure. Ranger's work is boring, but it pays the bills. I like skip chasing, but the income from it is uncertain at best. Working part time in both is good for me. It gives me stability as well as diversity."

"Will you move in with Ranger on a permanent basis?"

"I doubt it. Ranger hasn't asked me, to start off with, and I know he likes having his own space."

"If he asked you, would you stay?"

I paused. That was a good question. "I don't know. I also like having my own space." I tried to imagine what it would be like sharing closet space with Ranger day in and day out. It felt amazingly right. Deciding to think about that some other time, I settled back as Ella told me about her deceased son. She had only had the one child. He was also Special Forces and had been in Ranger's unit. He died on a mission. Ella said she would always be grateful for everything Ranger did to try to save her Emanuel, and was thankful that the government recognized his valor with a Silver Star. Apparently that was not the first one Ranger had received.

I forked in another mouthful of cake and thought about Ranger and his selflessness, his integrity, his honour, his ability to focus when faced with problems, and his ability to rise above it all to do what needed to be done. I felt very lucky to know him. He had obviously been doing well in the army and I wondered why he had retired. I had never asked him. I put the question aside to think about another day and had another forkful of chocolate cake and ice cream.

* * *

Ranger walked in an hour later, smiling as he held a trophy made out of toilet paper rolls and paper plates in front of him. "I take it you were the victor?" I asked.

"Yes. I got the most kills and was hit the least. I am sorry you weren't there. I think you would have had a good time and it's important for team building."

He walked through to the office and put his trophy on one of the bookshelves. It was the only piece of him in the apartment. Everything else was decorator approved. I liked the hominess of the homemade trophy and thought it was a good addition to the space. I told Ranger that.

He looked surprised. Looking around the room, you could see that he was assessing it in his mind. "I never really thought about it before. I did get a decorator to design the rooms. As long as I had a big closet, a hidden gun cabinet, and usable space, I didn't much care for what was put in here. Ella made a lot of the decisions for the colours, furniture and finishings. I only had a few requests. King-sized bed, large walk-in shower and comfortable office were my top three."

"You don't have any family pictures or mementoes around."

"In my line of work, the fewer crumbs you can leave that would direct felons to your family and friends, the better. If someone can find your weaknesses, like in identifying your loved ones, they then have a hold on you."

"But aren't you out of that dangerous line of work now? Can't you ease up and enjoy life a bit more, enjoy your family and friends more?"

"There is so much about me you don't know, so much you will never know. I will never be able to ease up and enjoy life. It is a path I chose a long time ago and it is too late to change my mind on it now."

"I don't understand."

"I don't expect you to understand. Someday I might be able to explain it to you. Today is not that day." I could visibly see him pull back into his aloneness, shutting me out of any further emotional connection. "How are you feeling?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Sore, but it's manageable. I spent half an hour with Ella talking about her son and her enjoyment of her boys here, as she calls them. I also spent half an hour on your computer surfing the internet and playing Solitaire. I'm glad you are home. I was getting bored." Ranger laughed, but you could tell that his mind was not on what I was saying. Instead, he was still in the conversation regarding the path that he had chosen and his protection of all his loved ones. My mind was there as well. I was curious about what he meant and wanted to ask him further, but I knew my questions would be rebuffed.

I told him I was going to have a bath. I was hoping Ranger would join me again. Despite being sore, I thought we could still manage to have some fun. He asked me if I needed help getting in and out of the bath. When I said yes, he ran the water and helped me into the bath. "I will be working in the office. Call me when you are ready to get out." He turned around and left, shutting the door on the way out. I relaxed in the bath for a few minutes, concerned about Ranger pulling back from me. I tried to figure it out. He was loving with me, competitive with Morelli, and protective of everything I do. To me that added up to an emotional commitment. But then there was this other piece. This pulling back whenever I get too close, his failure to explain himself, his lack of sharing in almost all parts of his life. He is so closed, and to someone like me, to someone whose life is an open book, that is hard to understand.

I could hear the murmur of the all-day news station on the television as Ranger worked in the office. I played with the water, sloshing it from side to side, trying hard not to get my cut arm in the water. I pouted a bit at Ranger's lack of connection, but I felt silly. I'm not a particularly introspective person, and pouting is not my style. I am more of an open, in your face type of person. If I cannot deal with a problem head on, I will either ignore and/or eat the problem away. Having already filled my belly with cake and ice cream, I was ready to ignore the inconsistencies in Ranger's behavior.

I played with the water until it started to cool, then washed myself in Ranger's body wash. I thought about how the scent of the wash was orgasmic, and I wondered idly if it was the wash itself or whether it was my association of that scent with Ranger that made me have that reaction to it.

Finishing in the bath, I called out to Ranger for help out of the tub. He called out that he would be through in just a minute. I waited, playing with the cooling water. A few minutes later Ranger came through. "I'm sorry," he said, "I was on the phone."

"No worries. I just played with the water." I let the water out of the tub. Ranger hauled me up, eliciting only a small hiss of pain from me.

"I'm sorry. Do you need me to get you another pain pill?" he asked, concerned.

"No. I will take one after dinner. Ella is making roast pork tenderloin and applesauce for dinner. I don't want to take the chance of missing that." I smiled.

Ranger just shook his head. "I can't understand why you aren't the size of a house."

"I have good Italian and Hungarian genes which allow me to eat lots of carbs, lots of protein, lots of everything, really. I must have a high metabolism or something. Having said that, I am trying to be more careful now that half my clothes don't fit. I was actually starting to like the self-defense lessons you were giving me. I felt like I was learning and like I could justify what I was eating a bit. Surprisingly – at least, it was a surprise to me – I didn't feel like eating as much when I was training with you. I even turned down doughnuts today at the Tasty Pastry. Do you know how soon I can return to the lessons?"

"I'm glad you like them. You are learning fast. It will be at least three weeks before you get back in the gym, however. Ribs heal fast and it wasn't a very bad break. So a few days from now you can start some stretches, three weeks for the more intense stretches, and a month for actual fighting."

"I can skip the stretches, can't I? I hate doing stretches. It feels like something is going to snap. I don't think the human body was made to do some of those things you are having me do."

"It will always feel tight if you don't work on stretching out your body. You need to regularly stretch to become limber. Being limber will improve your agility when you fight."

Oh goody. Stretching. Can't wait.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen **

I sat on the couch with Ranger after dinner watching "Olympus Has Fallen" on Netflix. In a nod to the discomfort I was in, I sat upright at the opposite end of the couch from Ranger and put my feet in his lap. He massaged them with just the right pressure as we watched our movie. When we got to the end, Ranger helped me off the couch. "You will need a pain pill tonight, Babe. I will get you one while you finish up in the bathroom." He walked into the kitchen, running a cold glass of water for me out of the fridge and dispensing a pain pill. He came through as I was getting into bed, gave me the pill, and said that he had some work that he needed to get done and he would be in bed in a while. I shut my eyes and drifted down to sleep.

Sometime later, I am not sure how long, I heard Ranger talking on the phone. I heard him say "Stephanie Plum", and I heard him say we could work around any difficulties. I woke up a couple of times more but the pain pill pulled me back into sleep again before I could hear him say anything else. It's too bad. It sounded like an interesting conversation.

* * *

The next morning, I woke to Ranger's watch alarm. "What time is it?" I asked.

"Five o'clock. Go back to sleep. I'm going down to the gym." I tried to get comfortable, finally falling back to sleep.

When I next woke up Ranger was getting out of the shower and the morning smell of brewing coffee hit my nose. I breathed deeply, wincing as my lungs expanded. I carefully got out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen to pour Ranger and myself a cup. I carried the cups back through into the bedroom as Ranger walked into the closet to dress.

"Did you have a good sleep?" asked Ranger.

"I did. I only woke up once. I thought I heard you talking in the office, and you mentioned my name."

"That sounds like an interesting dream."

"Yeah. I was pretty frustrated. I wanted to hear what you were saying, but I kept falling asleep. I woke up for a second or two, then I would fall back to sleep again. It looked like you were having an interesting conversation."

"Babe, I didn't talk to anybody last night. I did work in the office for a while, but then I came to bed. There was no one in the office, and I wasn't on the phone. It was just a dream."

"That's too bad. It had the potential to be such an interesting dream and the potential was never realized."

"It must have been the pain pills. Do you want more coffee?"

* * *

Ranger taped a plastic sandwich bag over the cut on my arm so I could have a shower. By the time I got out of the shower, Ranger had gone down to his office for the day. I got dressed, for once remembering my gun without prompting, and went down to sit at my desk, phone and headphones in hand. I went to the break room to get another coffee before starting, and ran into Raphael. "I heard you got tagged when you were wrestling with that guy yesterday", he said.

"Yup. He cut my arm, scratched my neck and fractured a rib. So much for my self-defense lessons."

"I'd say they are working. You would likely be dead otherwise."

"That's a cheery thought." I grimaced. I poured my coffee, grabbed a lemon poppyseed muffin for later, and walked back to the control room. There were no files from Ranger to search. Tank had two files for me to search. I was just completing them when I received a text from Morelli. _"Are you at Rangeman? I have a restraining order for you to sign. I will bring it by. What is a good time?"_

"_How about now?"_ I suggested. _"I will meet you at Reception to sign you in. We can grab a coffee and muffin together."_

"_See you in ten."_

I then popped my head in to see Ranger. "Morelli is on his way here and should arrive in about ten minutes. I was going to bring him up to the break room to grab a coffee and muffin, then take him down to one of the conference rooms as an extension of an olive branch. You okay with that?"

"Yes. I don't have time to say hi to him today. You are doing this meeting solo. Try not to get into any fistfights, okay?" he said as he smiled. He laughed as I stuck out my tongue at him. When I turned to go he said more seriously "I will meet you in my office at noon today for lunch. I have booked the shooting range from twelve thirty to one for target practice. You got out of laser tag, but you can't get out of target practice altogether."

"I am so looking forward to it", I said with a grumpy look on my face.

"You are doing well with it. You just need more practice, that's all. You'll get there."

As I walked out of his office, he said "can you please close the door? I have an important call I have to do."

I went downstairs and waited for Morelli. I did not have to wait long. He came striding in, his too-long hair windblown and disheveled. I signed him in with the guard. We took the elevator up to the fifth floor so Morelli could get a coffee and muffin. We then walked back out to the control room, walking quietly over to my desk to pick up my coffee and muffin. Leaving just as quietly, we took the elevators down to the second floor. We grabbed the first available conference room.

"Do you like working here?" asked Morelli as he sat down. "It seems awfully quiet for you. I have trouble envisioning you working here without falling asleep."

"I have been known to fall asleep periodically. I listen to music a lot."

"But do you like working here?"

"It definitely has its perks. The food being the main one. The work itself is pretty boring, but Ranger has expanded my responsibility a bit so that it isn't so boring. A little more analysis than before. It is nice to do it part time though. It gives me stability in my income, as well as benefits, while at the same time working for Vinnie part time gives me the excitement and diversity I enjoy. Will I always work here? I don't know. But I do know for right now this is where I need to be."

"I miss you, Cupcake." He reached out his hand and covered mine on the table.

"I miss you, too. We were together for a long time. You were one of my best friends and I would like to think you still are."

"It sounds like you still think we are better apart."

"Yes. We just can't seem to get along well when we are together. I think we should try the 'just friends' thing and see where that takes us."

"You still wear the friendship ring I gave you a few years ago."

"And we are still friends, aren't we? Or do you want me to give it back to you?"

"No, I don't want it back. I'm just happy you still wear it." He took my hand and twisted the ring around and around on my finger.

"I value it, just like I value our friendship. I don't want to lose that."

"I'm finding this hard."

"So am I."

"Then why are you doing this?" he burst out.

"I am tired of having nightmares about things you have said to me. I am tired of being worried about telling you about mistakes I have made because I know you will blow up at me. I miss lots of things about you, but I don't miss everything. It has taken me a long time to get my head on straight after shooting Brodie. I am still getting there. But your behavior has made my recovery so much harder. I can't have that lack of support. My job is difficult enough without my partner second guessing me and making me second guess myself."

"What does Ranger say about all this?"

"He says you are a good guy and you are going through a rough time yourself." I didn't tell him the part about Ranger saying he was an idiot.

"I'm not happy about this."

"I know."

"Is there any chance we could get back together in the future?"

"There is always a chance. I love you and I don't think that is going to disappear. But for right now, I need us to be separate. I need us to be friends, not a couple. Will we get back together again someday? I don't know. I can't answer that. What I do know is that I can't be together with you right now. I'm sorry."

"So are we seeing other people now?"

"Yes. I wouldn't hang on waiting for something that might never happen."

He sat there for a moment looking at his coffee cup, then nodded his head. "Okay." He turned to the file folder he had brought in with him and opened it up. "Here is the restraining order. There are three copies. You need to sign at the highlighted sections." I signed at the sections. He handed one copy to me. "That copy is for you. One copy is for Lundel himself, and the last copy is to be filed at the precinct." He stood and threw out his garbage. "Call me if you ever need anything, or even if you just want to talk, okay?" He leaned down and gave me a light, quick kiss on the lips, carefully caught me in a hug, and kissed the top of my head. He picked up his paper coffee cup and his file folder, and walked with me down to reception. I signed him out and, with a final kiss, I watched him walk away.

I went up to the apartment and lay down on the bed, burying my face in the pillow and sobbing. I wondered what I was doing, whether I was making the right decision. It seemed unfair. I wanted it all, and I couldn't have it all with either of the two men in my life. Yet, I loved them both. Eventually I cried so long I fell asleep.

At quarter after twelve Ranger came into the bedroom and kissed me awake. "You okay, Babe?" My eyes felt swollen and gritty.

"Yeah, thanks."

"Tough meeting with Morelli?"

"No, it actually went okay. It is easier to be sure about what I am doing when he is yelling and screaming, though. When he is being nice and understanding it makes me confused, wondering if I am making the right decision. He was being nice and understanding today."

"Do you want to get back together with him?"

"No. There are lots of things I like about him though, and that is why we were together for so long. He's a good guy. I told him that I still want him as one of my closest friends, and I do. I just don't think we are the right temperament mix to be a successful couple. Do you think I am making the right decision?"

"It doesn't matter what I think. It only matters what you think. You are the one that will have to live with your decision."

"But I don't know if I made the right decision."

"Only time will tell, Babe. I certainly can't tell you. I have enough troubles with my own life. Did you eat lunch?"

"No, I slept through it", I said, looking at the time. "I'm sorry. I was supposed to be at your office by twelve, wasn't I?"

"That's okay. I brought a couple of sandwiches up from the break room, and some cut vegetables. I put them out on the breakfast bar if you are ready to come and eat." He helped me to my feet.

We sat down at the breakfast bar, each selecting a sandwich and some vegetables. I asked how Ranger's phone meeting went. "Well. We are almost ready to move forward on the issue. I have another phone meeting tonight in the middle of the night. If it doesn't bother you, I will do it from the office up here."

"Why all the cloak and dagger stuff doing it in the middle of the night?"

"I am coordinating with people all around the world and am having to accommodate different time zones."

"What are you working on that involves so many people around the world?"

"I am a security expert. What do you think I am working on?" he said with a smile. A couple of seconds later he said "are you ready to go shooting as soon as we finish lunch?" I think he was trying to change the subject. I let him. He would always have his secrets.

Following lunch, Ranger and I headed down to the range. Ranger sent a target down to the end of the range. I shot a clip into it, hitting many bulls-eyes. I refilled my clip as Ranger sent a body target down to the end of the range. Taking a deep breath and wincing a bit at the sharp pain, I looked up at the target and psyched myself up to shoot at it. Repeatedly muttering "it's just a piece of paper" under my breath, I took aim and shot the clip into the target. When Ranger brought the target back up for us to look at, I saw that I had hit many bulls-eyes and not many complete misses.

"Again", said Ranger. He sent another target back to the end of the range. Feeling more confident, I shot another clip into the target. Most of the shots I got in the inner rings, with many in the centre. "You have good aim", he said. "It looks like it is coming together for you again, just like it was a few weeks ago. We will shoot one more clip and then you can come down here by yourself to practice even when I am not here. I would suggest you either come every day or, as a bare minimum, every second day. Training, of course, counts as billable hours. You will get paid for it. You need to get so comfortable with shooting the idea of playing laser tag doesn't throw you."

"Are you going to be away soon, that I would come down here without you?"

"Yeah, it looks like I will be away for a week or two, starting soon. It will depend partly upon the call I have tonight."

"So I have a few days before I have to vacate your place?"

"No, you are welcome to stay at my place while I am gone. I like the idea of coming back to you when you are all warm and snuggly in my bed. You would feel comfortable with it, wouldn't you? You have done it before." It's true. The very first time I stayed at Ranger's place I acted like an adult Goldilocks. Instead of eating porridge, I investigated whether Ranger was a boxers or a briefs kind of guy. I found out he was neither. I turned red remembering that revelation.

"Yes, I'd feel secure. I don't know if I should stay, though. Your apartment is growing too comfortable and I'm starting to think of it as home. That is dangerous. This isn't my place and we are essentially just friends with benefits."

Ranger didn't say anything, but he did not look happy.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

That night, after sitting on the couch watching television for a while, Ranger massaging my feet again, I went to bed. I was feeling pretty sore, but I was coping with the pain. Ranger insisted that I take another pain pill, and he cuddled me until I fell asleep. A while later, I am not sure how long, I woke up to Ranger pacing the office with his phone in his hand. He had his earphones in and I could barely hear Ranger's end to the conversation. Once again I heard him say "Stephanie Plum". This time he seemed happy with what they had to say on the other end of the line. He said "yes, sir, I will talk to her after I come back." Then he was silent again as I fell back to sleep.

The next morning I was silent about what I had heard. I could not figure out what was going on, but I knew Ranger would just say it was the pain pills giving me dreams again. I'm not sure if it was, however. The dream seemed pretty real to me. Of course, the shooting-Brodie dream seemed real to me as well, as if I was there experiencing it again, so what do I know? Maybe Ranger's pacing was all a dream, and I thought I heard something I didn't.

"What does your day look like?" asked Ranger, breaking into my thoughts.

"I am feeling a bit better, so I was thinking I would pick up Lula and go capture that dog dragger. Connie also texted me yesterday and said I have another four files to pick up. I would like to do the background work on those as well."

"I was wondering whether you would like to go out for dinner. We have gone out on dates before, but they have always been working dates. The closest we got to a real date was when I took you to my friend's wedding, and you were poisoned. Would you be interested in going out for dinner?"

"That sounds great! What sort of clothing will I need?" I asked.

"I thought I would wear a suit."

"You look awesome in a suit." And he did. He wears a black suit with a black dress shirt and a matching black tie, and he looks like he stepped off the cover of a GQ magazine. In my head, I added 'buy new dress' to my mental list of things to do today.

When Ranger left the apartment to go downstairs, I readied myself for the day and headed down to my car. I took the stairs. I needed to lose weight fast. I knew I could not lose all the weight I needed to lose in one morning, but hey! Every bit helps.

On the way down the stairs I got a text from Dillon. _"Your apartment smells good again. Had to get a professional company in to do the cleaning. The building insurance does not cover it. You will have to charge it to your property insurance. You are ready to move back in any time._

I texted him back, _"thanks again for looking after that. It smelled pretty bad. How upset are my neighbours?"_

"_They more think of you as their personal soap opera. The smell was a hanger rather than a spreader. Your neighbours weren't affected in their own apartments and you could only smell it in the hall. Only Mr. Short was affected terribly. He can't move fast enough on his walker to power through the smell. He got his groceries delivered to his door."_

I wasn't sure if I liked being thought of as entertainment and I tried to decide if I should be thankful or embarrassed. I made a mental note to stop by Mr. Short's apartment and pay him back for the delivery fee for his groceries.

I drove to the office, coming in through the back door. Connie was at the precinct bonding someone out, Vinnie was out having a nooner with a dog, and Lula was in the office alone. "I am on a mission today. I getting the dog dragger, pick up my cheque, then go to the mall and buy a dress. I have phoned Reese Kraust's employer, and she is scheduled to work at ten o'clock today. Are you interested in coming?"

"WHAM! I can get that dog dragger any day. Why do you need a dress?"

"Ranger is taking me out for dinner and he said he will be wearing a suit."

"Is that a suit for formal, black tie wear, or is that a court suit, or is that an exceedingly fancy suit for dinner wear? 'Cause it makes a difference as to what kind of dress you should buy."

"I don't know. I think Ranger only has one type of suit. He didn't say he was wearing his tuxedo. All the rest of his suits are black and he wears them with black shirts and ties."

Lula started fanning herself. "He has his own tuxedo? That man is like a caramel version of James Bond. The Sean Connery one. He was the best. Does he drink martinis, shaken but not stirred?"

"I don't think he drinks martinis. He's more of a wine kind of guy."

Lula stopped fanning herself. "Wine? I never could understand the appeal of that drink. Who wants to drink grape juice? I am more of a marguerita kind of girl. Now that's a drink."

I am more of an anything girl. I like it all, wine, margueritas, beer, you name it. I just don't like too much of it.

Connie came into the office just as I was finishing a cup of coffee. "Steph has a date with Ranger tonight. We are going dress shopping after we pick up Kraust. Wham! Let's get this done."

"Really? You have a date with Ranger?" Connie started fanning herself. "You will have to come in tomorrow to tell us how it went. Where is he taking you?"

"I don't know. I don't know if he knows yet. He just said to dress up, and I have to buy a new black dress. My existing cocktail dress does not fit anymore."

"You will have to do something about that, otherwise none of your clothes will fit. Even your Lululemon pants won't fit and that will be a shame since you just bought them." I agreed. That would be a shame.

"I was doing something about it until my rib was cracked. Ranger had me in self-defense training every day. I was actually getting so I liked it. Well, maybe not so that I liked it, but at least as though I was not dreading it as much."

"If you hang around Ranger much longer, you are going to become Mrs. Ranger", said Lula. "What happened with Officer Hottie?"

"We have officially broken it off. He was comfortable, but I wasn't getting the support I needed from him when I needed it. It doesn't mean that I will always be broken up with him. It just means that, right now, we can't be together. I want to stay friends with him, though, and keep an open channel with him. I like him too much as a person to not want to stay friends with him. We have agreed to see other people."

"How upset was he?"

"Very. I didn't like hurting his feelings. But now it is done."

"So Ranger asked you out."

"Yeah."

"Damn, you are lucky. Two hot guys after you."

"I am lucky, not because they are hot but because they are both good people." Lula and Connnie recommenced fanning themselves. "Are you ready to go get Kraust?" I asked.

"Absolutely. Wham! I am ready."

We got in the car and drove to Reese's work, a clothing store that caters to overweight women. "This is good," said Lula, "they usually only hire overweight people to work at that type of clothing store. And overweight people don't run too fast. Not that I would know. I'm not overweight. I am a big, beautiful woman. I just have big bones." I looked at her, eyeing the size of her bones. Nope, not big bones.

We waited until the store opened at ten o'clock. When we saw a woman unlock the doors, we got out of the car and walked in. A matronly salesclerk came up to us. "I'm sorry," she said to me, "but we don't sell maternity wear here. There is a maternity wear store up the street at the next strip plaza." She turned to Lula. "We definitely have your size here, however. What sort of style of clothing are you looking for?"

"Hunh. You don't sell my size here. I am a size two. And you don't sell no spandex." Two other customers came into the store and drifted close to Lula to be able to overhear her conversation.

"A size twenty-two, maybe, or a 2X, but definitely not a size two", said the lady. I heard a snort come from one of the other customers.

"You don't know what you are talking about. Size 2X, my ass. I bet you don't get no customers in this store. I bet you are about to go out of business. You can't size people very well at all."

Breaking into what appeared to be a brewing argument, I asked whether Reese Kraust was in the store.

"Yes", replied the salesclerk. "She is unpacking boxes and doing inventory in the back. Can I help you with something?"

"Yes, we are here on behalf of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, the bonding company she used when she was arrested. She missed her court date and needs to come with us to reschedule."

"Oh, my. Can you wait until her inventory is done before you take her off to jail?"

"No, I'm sorry but we can't. We can take her in, however, and get her bonded out right away. She could be back this afternoon to finish off her shift." I'm not sure if that is exactly accurate. It would depend upon whether she could come up with the collateral and the fifteen percent to make the bond.

We walked to the rear of the store, Lula continually muttering under her breath, insisting she was a size two, the salesclerk muttering under her breath about delusional customers.

We entered the back of the store. Kraust was opening boxes and counting items. I called her name. She held up her index finger, telling us to wait while she finished counting. We waited until her lips stopped moving and she had written down a number on a sheet. "May I help you?" she asked.

"I am Stephanie Plum. I represent Vincent Plum Bail Bonds and you missed your court date. I am here to escort you to court to reschedule. You can get bonded out again immediately and I am sure that you will be back in time to finish your shift."

"I guess I can do that", she said. "I don't like doing inventory anyway." She put down her clipboard and walked towards us calmly. I took out my cuffs. Seeing the cuffs, she started to run. Surprising Lula and I, she brushed past us, hitting my sore rib on the way. I made an involuntary cry of pain and Lula took after Kraust. Kraust had a slight head start, pulling clothing racks and displays into the aisle behind her as she went. Lula persevered. Kraust ran out of the store, followed closely by Lula, followed by me, followed by the salesclerk, followed by the other two customers in the store. I got to the automatic doors just in time to see Lula jump from the top of the wheelchair ramp onto Kraust, collapsing her onto the concrete stairs. I walked up and cuffed Kraust. "That's what I mean. Wham! That's your signature move. You squish them like a pancake."

"Wham!" Lula groaned.

I helped Kraust to her feet, thanked the salesclerk for her help, and walked Kraust to my car. Lula walked behind me. I sat Kraust in the car and got out my first aid box. I cleaned up her skinned knees and hands, then buckled her into the backseat. I shut the door then turned to Lula. I cleaned the dirt out of her skinned elbows and hands. "How are you doing?" I asked.

"Okay. I cocobonked my head pretty hard on hers, so I think I am going to have a bruise."

"Does your head hurt? Is your vision all right?"

"No, it just feels like I banged it. I don't think it's concussed or nothin'."

"Good, because I still want you to go shopping with me this afternoon."

"You are going shopping?" asked Kraust. "I love shopping. There is a new maternity wear store just up at the next plaza you should totally check out. I went there with my sister when she was pregnant, and they have lots of great clothes for reasonable prices."

"What is this with me looking like I am pregnant? I have just gained a little weight, that is all. I'm not that heavy, am I?" I asked Lula.

"No, you are just turning into a big, beautiful woman like me. There is nothing wrong with that. I get lots of honeys. 'Course, you don't have any problems getting honeys of your own. You have too many honeys."

"Not any more, I don't."

"Do you think Officer Hottie would be interested in me, now that you aren't going out with him?"

"I thought you were allergic to police?"

"For him, I would take an antihistamine. That man is hot."

"I like hot men", came Kraust's voice from the backseat. "If he is available, do you think he would be interested in me?"

"Probably not", I replied. "For one thing, he is a cop and cops aren't usually interested in dating felons. For another thing, he is a dog owner and would have little patience for someone who dragged their dog down the street. I understand why you felt too lazy to walk your dog, but you don't have the option to wimp out on the care if you own one. They are like kids. A huge responsibility that, once you take that responsibility on, you are stuck with it for the rest of your life."

"Are we still talking about dogs?" asked Lula.

"I don't know what I am talking about", I answered. "I think I am talking about kids." We drove on in silence for a few minutes, then I said to Lula "I will drop you off at the office and will pick you up when I bring in the body receipt."

* * *

I picked up my cheque from Connie and headed to the mall with Lula. We hit the bank first, putting in the money that would pay for the dress. Then we worked our way down the mall, starting at Macy's.

Lula and I shop differently. Lula shops for the tightest, skimpiest, shiniest outfit she can find. Her out-there purchases suit her personality. I, on the other hand, search for more traditional wear. Maybe it's the Hungarian in me, but I like to be practical.

In Macy's I found a slinky black dress that fit well. I felt it emphasized my tummy though. Lula found a short, shiny silver sequined number. She handed it over the door. "I can't wear that!" I said.

"Why not? It looks good on. I have one exactly like it, but in gold." I didn't think it looked good. I thought it looked like a fishing lure.

I found another dress, a deep purple decorated with a black lace overlay on the bodice and a black skirt. I wore it out of the change room and modelled it. "Nice", said Lula. "Sexy in an understated sort of way. I am all about the traditional. That looks good on you." She pulled out a royal blue spandex tank top dress. "Try this on", she said. I grimaced internally, but tried it on. "Oh, yeah, girlfriend. That dress will have him begging."

I looked in the mirror and grimaced. "I don't think this is exactly my style. It doesn't seem to cover all of me." I looked down and tried to pull the dress down over the curve of my butt cheeks. "You can tell the colour of my underwear while I am standing up."

"I see what you are saying. That is why you have to buy underwear that is the same colour as the dress. Are you sure you don't like it?"

"No, I don't feel comfortable in it."

"I think I will try it on then. It may be a bit big on me, but I would like to try it. Royal blue is a good colour for me, especially when I put blue or pink streaks in my hair." Lula tried on the dress. I imagined the dress crying out in protestation as Lula pulled it over her head. A lot of grunting came from behind Lula's change room door, and she came out looking triumphant. "What do you think?" she asked.

"Can you breathe?" I asked.

"Yes, of course I can."

"I think it makes a nice top but men will think you are still in business if you wear that dress walking down the street."

"Hunh. What do you know? I'm taking it." She walked back in the room and her struggle to get out of the dress again was heard by both the sales people in the change room area. Suddenly I heard the sound of ripping fabric. Lula quickly walked out shortly afterwards. "I don't think I will take it after all." I ran after her as she powerwalked towards the exit into the mall. "Fool sizing. It is so inconsistent. They must have marked the dress the wrong size. That was supposed to be a size six. There is no way a size six is too small for me", she said in disgust as we walked down the mall.

We walked into another store, a hole-in-the-wall store that was advertising a store-closing sale. Lula started pulling dress after dress off the racks for me. I was not nearly as successful. I found four dresses that I liked, a dark red one, another purple one, a dark sapphire blue one, and a black one. I tried on the red one first. It had long netted sleeves and a deep scoop neck. It looked better than the purple and black lace one I had just tried on. I tried on the purple one, but did not like it at all. I tried on the black tuxedo dress. Nice, but not the sexy feel that I was going for. Finally, I tried on the dark sapphire stretch velvet dress. It had off-the-shoulder short sleeves and a deep, wide v-neckline, and came with a matching wrap. The sleeves just covered my cut. It was tight down my body, ending just above my knee. I knew it was the dress as soon as I put it on. I could pair it with my strappy black high heels, and my fake diamond necklace and drop earrings. I came out of the change room to show Lula.

"That's the one. If he sees you in that before you leave for dinner, he may change his mind about taking you out." I agreed with Lula. Of course, I have seen him in a suit before and, I know from experience, once I see him again in a suit I would be quite happy to stay at home.

She looked down at all the clothes heaped in her arms. "I have already pulled these. There is no point letting them go to waste", and she went into the change room. I closed the door on my change room and took off the dress. I looked at the price and noticed the 50% off sticker covering the price. I peeled off the sticker slightly so that I could see the original price and smiled. The sale price was so good I would be able to buy a new strapless bra, underwear and pantyhose. Life was good.

I finished getting dressed in my own clothes and stepped outside, taking my rejects and putting them on the rack. I sat down on the bench and waited for Lula, my dress clutched in my hands. I again heard a lot of grunting, and Lula came out wearing a lime-green stretch dress that was gathered down one side. I thought it looked hideous, but I told her it looked nice anyway. "I like it", she said. She went back into the change room and with only minimal swearing changed back out of the dress. A few minutes later she came out in a fire engine red deep v-neck dress that showed off her considerable assets. "I like this one too." She returned to the change room and came out in a yellow and black striped top and a black miniskirt.

"Nope. You look like a bumblebee in that one", I said before Lula could say that she liked it. She looked at it, considering, turning her head this way and that as she looked in the mirror, then decided she agreed with me.

"This is the last one", she said as she came out in a white halter-style Marilyn Monroe dress.

"Classic. It looks good on you", I said. She decided to get that dress as well.

"I can afford all this because it is half price. I would not be able to afford even one of them if they weren't half price. Now I can afford all three."

"But three half price ones add up to one and a half full price ones. How can you afford all that?"

"I just got a raise."

"You got a promotion?" I asked. I didn't remember hearing anything about Lula getting a promotion and, in all honesty, I thought she would have to _do_ her job as a file clerk before she would ever get a promotion.

"No. My credit rating has been raised on my Amex card. I can now spend much more than I could previously."

Oh, that kind of raise.

I went to the cash and paid for my one dress. Lula paid for her three on her Amex card.

I then told Lula I needed to go to Victoria's Secret to get new underwear. Lula's eyes sparkled. She loved shopping for sexy underwear.

We walked down the mall to Victoria's Secret. I immediately walked back towards the strapless bras in my 36C size. I picked a black lacy one with a deep V in the front and tried it on. Lula handed a "pump up the volume" bra in a 34D size over the door of the change room. I liked the 34D size better, partly because it meant I was wearing a D cup. How cool is that? I tried on the dress overtop and walked out of the change room. I had cleavage I didn't even know I had. "Va-va-vroom", said Lula. "That's what I'm talking about. Let the professional pick your panties. You are going for the classic look. Thong? Bikini? What do you want?"

"Black to match my bra, preferably bikini although cheeky or cheekinis would be a nice change." I admired myself in the mirror a little longer, then reluctantly changed out of my dress. Lula was back shortly afterwards, passing over a pair of cheeky black lace panties with a strappy cutout on the back.

"I have other options for you, but that is the best pair as long as it fits."

I tried them on over my existing underwear and looked in the mirror. Definitely sexy. I took off the underwear and bra and put on my old clothes. Leaving the change room, I picked up a package of sheer thigh-highs. I was set for the night.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty **

Back at Rangeman, I taped a plastic bag over my cut and had a long shower. I spent some extra time moussing my hair and scrunching it dry under the hair dryer. Then I carefully applied my make-up and put on my jewelry and underwear. I put on Ranger's housecoat, then walked into the bedroom to get my stockings. I ran into Ranger as he entered the bedroom. "Sorry I'm late", he said. "I was in a meeting with Tank. Give me fifteen minutes and I will be ready to go." I knew this meant I really had only ten minutes until he was ready. Ranger could be fast when he wanted to be. I put on my stockings and pulled the dress over my head. Reaching behind me to do up the zipper, I could only get it done halfway up. I abandoned the task for Ranger to do and put on my strappy heels. I had just finished putting on the heels when Ranger came out of the bathroom, damp towel wrapped around his middle. He walked into the closet and stopped and stared at me. "Wow! You look..." He swallowed hard. His reaction made the afternoon of shopping all worth it.

I turned around. "Would you mind doing up the dress?" I asked, sweeping my hair over one shoulder out of the way of the zipper. He came over, his hands warm against the small of my back, and leaned in to kiss the back of my neck. He kissed his way to the side and lightly bit the tendon in my neck. He soothed the sting with a kiss. He kissed his way down my neck and onto my shoulder. With one last kiss he did up the back of my dress for me.

"Where are we going for dinner?" I asked.

"There is a new seafood restaurant in Newark my sister was raving about that I thought I would take you to. I've never asked before. Do you like seafood?"

"Shrimp is one of my favourite foods and I really enjoyed Ella's tuna steak when she made it for me, but I generally am not a big fish fan. I didn't grow up eating fish. Vegetarian meals either. If it didn't have legs, it wasn't served on our dinner table."

Ranger led me out of the apartment and down the elevator, out to his Porsche Turbo. He held the door for me, shutting it once I got my seatbelt on. Ranger drove out of the parking garage, putting classical music on softly in the background. "How was your day?" he asked.

"Good. I am now cleaned up on cases as far as Vinnie goes, although I got a text from Connie as I was getting dressed saying that five new cases have come in. Two of them are high bonds. Vinnie will be having a coronary."

"Who did you capture today?"

"The dog dragger. She was a runner and Lula had to do her signature move on her to get her to stop."

"What is Lula's signature move?"

"Jumping on them and flattening them. I had to pull out the first aid kit for both Lula and the skip after Lula caught her." Ranger smiled. "Then, after I cashed in my cheque, Lula and I went shopping. You would have laughed. She got so offended when one salesperson today suggested she was a 2X rather than the size 2 she purports to be. She then tried to prove them wrong this afternoon. She tried on every size 2 dress that had stretch to it, even ripping one dress trying to get it off again. Whereas I bought one dress that I love, she loved every dress and bought three new ones. Whereas I bought one bra and panty set, Lula bought three, one to match each of the dresses. She told me she received a raise, but when I asked her about it I found out her raise was a raise in her credit limit on her Amex. Sometimes I worry about her, whereas at other times I am confident she will land on her feet."

"I think she is a survivor and will always land on her feet. She has too many street smarts to make any serious mistakes."

"What about you? How was your day?"

"It was good. I have that project coming up and I needed to prepare for that. I met with Tank. He is staying here to look after the company while I am gone. I should be gone for about a week, maybe two, less if everything goes well. As I said earlier, you are perfectly welcome to stay in the apartment. I have told Tank you might be staying and he said just to let him know what you are doing."

"I'm not sure what I am going to do. Dillon called today to let me know my apartment has been deodorized. A professional cleaning company had to be called in and the building insurance did not cover it. I will have to call my insurance company tomorrow. I also have to pay Mr. Short's grocery delivery fee. He is not very mobile and it takes him fifteen minutes to make it from his apartment at the end of the hall to the elevators. He could not spend that long in the stink and needed to order his groceries for delivery so that he wouldn't get caught in the fumes."

"Don't go through your property insurance to pay for the clean-up. That will raise your rates. Instead, bill it to Rangeman. Same with Mr. Short's delivery fee. Bill it to Rangeman. Give Tank the bills and he will make sure you are reimbursed. It is our fault you were targeted in the first place."

We fell silent, each lost in our own thoughts. Ranger reached over and caught my hand in his. He brought my hand up to his mouth and kissed the fingers, then took my hand and laid it flat on the top of his thigh. He covered it with his own hand, periodically letting it go to shift gears.

We got there in record time, parking in a spot close to the doors. Ranger guided me into the restaurant, hand on the small of my back. The candlelit tables and dim lighting lent an intimate ambiance to the place. Chairs were padded black leather parson's chairs; tablecloths were white; napkins were black linen. He had booked a table towards the back corner, with a good view of the restaurant and all the doors leading both in and out. The waiter held out the chair facing the restaurant for me. I took the one facing the wall. I knew Ranger would feel more comfortable having a good view of the entire restaurant. We may have been at the restaurant for pleasure, but Ranger was and would always be on guard. It was who he was.

"I hope this place is good. My sister, Elena, recommended it to me."

"I know you have sisters and one brother, but how many sisters do you have?"

"I have four. Elena is the oldest, then me, then Rosa, then Maria, then my brother, Silvio, then Celia." A basket of warm bread and cold butter arrived on the table. Menus appeared and the waiter quietly filled our water glasses with icy water.

"Do they all live here in Newark?" I knew Ranger had been brought up in Newark until he started getting into trouble. When he got out of juvie, he moved down to live with family in Miami for his high school years, then came back to New Jersey to try college before joining the army. Now that his stint in the army was over he was back in New Jersey, close to his family.

"Elena. Celia and Rosa do. Maria has moved down to Miami. Elena lives with her family. She has given me two nieces and a nephew. Celia has given me two nephews. Rosa never married and is living with my parents and grandmother. She provides the primary care for them. Maria is married but does not have any children yet. Silvio is not married. He's in the army and is stationed in various places around the world."

"How old is your grandmother?"

"Let's see … she's eighty-four. No, eighty-three."

The waiter came and took our order for dinner. I ordered shrimp surf and turf with crab filled mushrooms to start; Ranger ordered a tuna steak with a salad to start. A bottle of chilled white wine arrived at the table, held in a freestanding ice bucket. The waiter poured wine for each of us.

"What do your parents do?"

"My parents are retired now, but they used to own a restaurant. When I was younger I was the busboy. My mother and father both cooked and my grandmother hostessed. They hired serving staff until my sisters were old enough to serve alcohol. Elena inherited the restaurant and still runs it to this day. Celia does a lot of the cooking. I would have taken you there, but I did not think you would want to deal with the inquisitiveness of my family."

"It wouldn't have bothered me. It's only fair. You have had to deal with the inquisitiveness of mine."

"Your family is nothing. My grandmother is much like Grandma Bella." I tried not to shudder. Grandma Bella is Morelli's grandmother. She hates me and frequently curses me. Unfortunately for me, the curses seem to work.

"Do you get to see your family a lot? You always seem to be around Trenton and I have never met your family before."

"I don't see them as often as I should. I email with them regularly and talk to them on the phone periodically. I am always careful in my line of business not to mix business with pleasure, and I am always on business. Mixing the two just complicates things. Until I met you, I avoided complications."

"Are you saying I am a complication?"

"The best kind."

Hunh.

We finished our meal with a fruit platter for Ranger and a crème brulée for me.

"Do you want anything else?" Ranger asked.

"I have reached even my limit. If I eat anything else you will be rolling me out of the restaurant rather than walking."

"Are you ready to go home now?"

"Yes, I am", I said, realizing that home is exactly how I was thinking of Ranger's place. It made me pause. I had never really thought of Morelli's house as home, even when I was living there with him for those four months. With no permanence in my relationship with Ranger, thinking of his place as home was dangerous.

Ranger guided me out to the car and saw me safely inside. When we had buckled up we started for home, quietly enjoying the music. Getting back to the apartment, I took off my shoes at the door and walked into the bedroom in my stocking feet. I dropped my shoes on the floor and asked Ranger to undo my dress for me. He swept my hair out of the way and kissed the back of my neck. With a feeling of déjà vu, he kissed his way down my neck and across my shoulder, sliding down the zipper on my dress and kissing each inch of flesh as he slowly revealed it until … oh, boy.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One **

I woke up the next morning at five o'clock. Ranger's alarm was going off and he was sleepily reaching around me to reset it. "Are you getting up?" I asked.

"Not enough sleep", he mumbled and reset the alarm for two hours later. "I need at least four hours." It was true. Our night activities had kept us so busy that sleep was sacrificed. I drowsily snuggled back in to him as he gathered me into a hug, holding my breast in his hand, and fell back asleep.

At seven o'clock when the alarm went off Ranger was functioning for the day. I, however, was not. I slept through him making the coffee, his shower, and him getting dressed. I woke up to Ranger kissing me awake and a cup of coffee on the bedside table. I sleepily sat up, pushing my hair out of my face. It was still damp from the bath we had at around three in the morning. "You are already dressed?" I asked.

"I got out of bed very quietly. Like a ninja", Ranger said with a smile.

"I think it helped that I was really tired. Somebody wore me out", I said. "I had a really good time last night. And this morning. Thank you."

"I had a good time, too." My hair was flopping down on my face. Ranger pushed it behind my ears. "What do you have planned for today?"

"Not much. I am going into the bonds office to pick up the new files, and to give some kind of accounting to Lula and Connie about last night."

Ranger tensed. "What do you plan on saying?"

"I don't know. It was a special evening and I don't really want to share it. You also told me a lot about you and I suspect you don't want the whole world knowing your business. I don't want to share for that reason either." Ranger's body lost its stiffness. "I think I will just say we had a good time and Lula was right, when you saw me in that dress you considered cancelling our dinner plans and ordering in. And since they will know by looking at the smile on my face, I will tell them we had a very active night. Lula's mind always goes to the sex anyway and Connie will respect it when I dodge any personal questions. I think that is how I will handle it. Oh, and I think I will tell them you liked the underwear Lula picked out. That's it. Is that okay?"

"Works for me."

"It's okay. I know you are a private person and would like to guard that privacy. I get that. I will guard it for you as well." And I knew I had to. If I would ever have a chance at deepening the relationship with Ranger, I had to respect his boundaries.

"What else are you doing today?"

"I thought I would bring the files back to Rangeman and do the computer work here. I am sure Sales have sent me some files to research as well, and I would like to get caught up on Rangeman work. I thought, also, I might go down to the range today and try some more body targets. Do you have time to come?"

"Maybe. It will depend upon how well my morning goes. I am still preparing to go away. I am scheduled to leave early tomorrow morning."

"I will miss you."

"I will miss you, too." He leaned over and kissed the tip of my nose. "Ella made scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning. Are you ready to eat?"

* * *

I walked into the office to pick up my new files to find two sets of eyes staring at me, eyebrows raised. "So?" they asked.

"It was pretty fantastic. We went to a place in Newark he knew about. The food was excellent. We almost didn't make it there. Once he saw me in that dress, it was all bets off as to whether we were going to go. And afterward, he said he liked the underwear you picked, Lula. He liked them on as well as off."

"How many times did he see them off, if you know what I mean?" asked Lula.

"Many, many times. I'm a little stiff this morning." Connie's eyes glazed over and I think I saw Lula drool.

I heard Vinnie from inside his office. "Is that you, Steph? What are you doing here? I have outstanding skips. There's no time for yakking. You need to get moving. Time is money. I am bleeding out here. Go out and find those fuckers for me."

"Sure, Vinnie. I am doing the phone and computer work today, and perhaps we can go out tomorrow, Lula?" She nodded her head yes. "Don't worry, Vinnie. We'll bring them in", I said, fingers crossed behind my back for luck.

I picked up my new files and walked out the back door towards the car. I took my phone out of my purse to call Ranger to tell him the meeting with Connie and Lula had gone well. I had just hit speed dial when Lundel jumped out from behind Connie's car. I held the phone so that Ranger would be able to hear my conversation with Lundel.

"Remember me?" he asked.

"Yes, I do. How could I forget you? You drugged me and held me at knife point. My arm is still sore from the cut you gave me. I have a restraining order for you."

"You don't need to be hurt any further. It is so easy. All you have to do is contact Jay Technologies and tell them they should hire me."

"Why do you want the job so much?" I asked, trying to keep him talking.

"Jay Technologies makes audio equipment. I have a buyer I already promised a few truckloads of equipment to. They aren't happy I have not delivered, but I cannot deliver the goods until I am in a position to send the equipment to the wrong address, to the thief's address instead of the buyer's address."

"But that is stealing."

"No, it is redirecting. I'm like Robin Hood, but the profits will go to me rather than to the poor."

"Is that how you do it? You get in a company, sell the goods to one buyer but send the product to another location? Then what?"

"Then I get the receiver of the goods to move locations. I take the money for the stolen goods, then do it all again."

"Why can't you tell the buyer you just can't deliver?"

"They will kill me."

I heard the distinctive whine of Ranger's car coming down the alleyway. Lundel wasn't paying any attention. The car stopped and I could not hear anything more. No doors slamming, no nothing. "How did you get involved with these guys?"

"They paid for some surgery for my wife. I had a good job then, and they wanted the connections. The surgery was life-saving, but now that it is over they keep threatening my wife, asking me to do more and more or they will kill her."

"What was the surgery for?"

"Prostate cancer."

"Why are you lying to me?"

"I'm not lying."

"Yes you are. Women don't have prostates."

Ranger creeped up behind the man, grabbed his wrist and snapped on cuffs. Lundel struggled and tried to get away. Ranger grabbed Lundel and threw him against my car, grabbing hold of his other wrist to cuff him. Lundel slid to the ground. As he tried to get on his feet again, Ranger smashed Lundel's face into my car. "Call Morelli, Babe."

I dialed Morelli's cell. "Hi", I said.

He sounded tired as he said "hi".

"We got Lundel."

"Now? Where are you?"

"We are at the bonds office. Ranger is onsite and captured him."

"He is making a citizen's arrest?"

"Yes, until you get here. Then you can arrest him."

"I'll be there in about ten minutes." He hung up sounding more energized than he did when he answered the phone.

"He will be here in about ten minutes."

"Police brutality! Help!" cried out Lundel. Ranger smashed his face into the car again.

"I will make sure you lose your badge over this", threatened Lundel.

"Go ahead", said Ranger. "I buy them over the internet anyway."

"It was so easy. All this bitch had to do was recommend hiring me to Jay Technologies. It didn't have to end this way. You know this won't stop me. You know I will come back to find you and kill you."

Ranger smashed his face into the car again. "No, you will not. Because if you come back and harass or assault any of my staff again, I will personally kill you and enjoy doing it."

"This is police brutality. You could get fired for this. I am friends with the mayor. He will have your badge."

"Lucky I'm not police then."

"Then this is assault. I am making a complaint to the police when I see them."

"Complain away. The policing community is a small one, and bounty hunters are one part of it. You fucked with one of their own. There will be no sympathy for you being subdued during your arrest."

Morelli drove up, Kojak light flashing. Lundel was hunched over the hood of my car, nose bleeding from being smashed against the metal. Morelli ran across the parking lot. "Help!" cried Lundel, trying to straighten up. "This man is assaulting me." Ranger smashed his face into the car again.

"I didn't see anything", said Morelli.

"Lundel has been resisting arrest. He is a little bloody, but he is in one piece which is more than he deserves."

Ranger took his cuffs off Lundel and Morelli snaps one half of the set of cuffs on Lundel's wrist. Lundel, realizing he was free, started to fight. He spat on Morelli, kicked out at Ranger and started towards me. Morelli's hand shot forward, and the sound of bone hitting bone jarred across the lot as Morelli broke Lundel's nose. As he shook his head to clear the pain, Morelli finished snapping on the cuffs. "You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent…" Morelli continued reading Lundel his Miranda rights as he walked him towards his car.

* * *

"I leave tomorrow morning, early", Ranger said over dinner. "I have to be at the airport at four. I hope to be gone no more than a week, but I don't have a return flight booked yet. Will you be here when I get back?"

"I will be waiting for you, although I'm not sure if I will be at your apartment or mine."

"When I get back, Babe, we need to talk."


End file.
